The Washington Post brought the news cycle to a grinding halt this week with a major story alleging President Donald Trump had revealed classified information to the Russians.
Like most things in the era of Trump, the controversy is convoluted and involves many moving parts.
Here’s what we know:
President Trump met last week with the Russian foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, and the Russian ambassador, Sergey Kislyak. U.S. media were not allowed to attend the meeting. Russian and American press photographers, however, were permitted into the room.
“Our official photographer and their official photographer were present — that’s it,” an anonymous White House aide said.
The official White House readout on Trump’s meeting with Lavrov and Kislyak was slim on details, and it provided only basic and broad descriptions.
“President Trump emphasized the need to work together to end the conflict in Syria, in particular, underscoring the need for Russia to rein in the Assad regime, Iran, and Iranian proxies,” it read.
Fast forward a few days, and this is where we get to our controversy.
Trump’s closed-door meeting last week, which went undocumented by the U.S. press, saw him disclosing “highly classified” intelligence to the Russians, according to the Washington Post.
“The information the president relayed had been provided by a U.S. partner through an intelligence-sharing arrangement considered so sensitive that details have been withheld from allies and tightly restricted even within the U.S. government,” the Post reported, citing anonymous current and former U.S. officials.
The nameless officials said the president’s disclosures, which involved details of the threat posed by use of laptop computers on airplanes, have jeopardized an ally and a crucial source of intelligence on the Islamic State.
They also said Trump revealed the name of the ISIS-controlled city where U.S. intelligence counterparts uncovered the alleged threat.
The Post report added, “The partner had not given the United States permission to share the material with Russia, and officials said Trump’s decision to do so endangers cooperation from an ally that has access to the inner workings of the Islamic State.”
By Monday evening, Reuters, the New York Times, BuzzFeed and several other major newsrooms had produced reports independently corroborating the Post’s original story. However, it’s important to note that this doesn’t necessarily mean there are government sources beyond the ones cited by the Post. The same people who talked to the Post could very well be sources cited by the Times, Reuters, etc.
It’s unclear because no one has gone on the record for this story.
National security adviser H.R. McMaster responded Monday to the Post’s story, but his remarks weren’t necessarily the slam-dunk refutation some say it was. Rather than stating outright that the entire Post story was wrong, McMaster instead used very carefully parsed phrases, denying as much as he could without denying the entire story.
“The story that came out tonight, as reported, is false. The president and the foreign minister reviewed a range of common threats to our two countries, including threats to civil aviation,” he said [emphasis added].
“At no time – at no time – were intelligence sources or methods discussed,” he added. “The president did not disclose any military operations that were not already publicly known. Two other senior officials who were present, including the secretary of state, remember it being the same way and have said so.”
The problem here is that the Post report never stated otherwise. McMaster’s remarks here are a refutation of a thing that wasn’t reported.
“Their on-the-record accounts should outweigh those of anonymous sources. And I was in the room. It didn’t happen,” McMaster said.
On Tuesday, President Trump addressed the matter on social media, saying, “As President I wanted to share with Russia (at an openly scheduled W.H. meeting) which I have the absolute right to do, facts pertaining … to terrorism and airline flight safety. Humanitarian reasons, plus I want Russia to greatly step up their fight against ISIS & terrorism.”
“I have been asking Director Comey & others, from the beginning of my administration, to find the LEAKERS in the intelligence community,” he added.
For many in media and political circles, the president’s remarks on Twitter all but confirmed the main thrust of the Post’s report.
McMaster again addressed the matter Tuesday afternoon. He again said a lot without saying a lot.
In reference to the ISIS-controlled city that Trump reportedly revealed to the Russians, the national security adviser said, “It was nothing that you would not know from open source reporting in terms of a source of concern.” This would appear to confirm that the president did indeed share the name of the territory where the classified intelligence in question was reportedly gathered.
It’s all carefully parsed, and it’s not a full denial. It muddies the waters, and it’s just enough to act as a defense of the White House. In short, it’s good political spin.
