Democratic lawmakers, and a few Republicans, were deeply troubled by a report that President Donald Trump revealed highly classified information in a meeting with Russian officials last week.
The Washington Post reported late Monday that Trump reportedly gave away information related to an Islamic State plot, learned from a key U.S. partner, during a White House meeting with Russian ambassador Sergei Kislyak and Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov. He did not reveal the name of the source or the intelligence-gathering method, but discussed details that could be used to reverse engineer that information, per the story.
The report comes as congressional panels and the FBI, with a new acting director on the job for less than a week, probe the nature of any potential links between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin.
“If the allegations are true, that would be very, very troubling,” Senate Foreign Relations committee chairman Bob Corker told reporters. “To compromise a source is something that you just don’t do, and that’s why we keep the information that we get from intelligence sources so close.”
Corker also told reporters that the White House was in a “downward spiral.”
South Carolina senator Lindsey Graham told THE WEEKLY STANDARD the report is worrisome if confirmed.
“I don’t know if it’s true,” he said. “If it’s true it would be troubling.”
Trump national security adviser H.R. McMaster, who was present at the meeting between Trump and the Russians, made a brief statement declaring the Washington Post report to be “false.”
“At no time, at no time, were intelligence sources or methods discussed, and the president did not disclose any military operations that were not already publicly known,” he said. “I was in the room. It didn’t happen.”
Democrats, who have in recent days heightened their calls for an independent investigation into potential Trump campaign-Kremlin links, were dismayed by the report.
“The report is pretty terrifying,” Connecticut senator Richard Blumenthal told TWS. “If true, it is astonishing and appalling, and should be investigated.”
Oregon senator Ron Wyden said he learned about the report after getting a root canal, and wrote a statement sitting in his dentist’s chair.
“These reports, if true, are of the gravest possible concern,” he told reporters. “It could harm our national security by cutting off important sources of intelligence that protect Americans against terrorist acts.”
Delaware senator Chris Coons, asked for his initial thoughts on the report, said it was “shocking.”
Connecticut senator Chris Murphy said the report was part of a steady drip of information related to connections between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin.
“If this story is true, it’s another brick in the wall of a really, really troubling connection between Trump and the Russian government,” he said.
Former director of national intelligence James Clapper and lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have said that they have not seen evidence of such collusion.
