Trump Revealed ‘Code Word’ Highly Classified Information to Russians During Oval Office Visit (Video)

‘Senior White House Officials Took Steps to Contain the Damage’

In a meeting closed to the U.S press President Donald Trump revealed “code word” highly classified information to Russian visitors in the Oval Office last week, information that may have compromised the American effort to destroy ISIS. Among the visitors were Russian Ambassador Sergei Kislyak and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov (photo: Lavrov and Trump). 

“The information Trump 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, officials said,” according to the Washington Post, which first broke the story.

“I get great intel. I have people brief me on great intel every day,” Trump said, the Post reports, noting, “Trump seemed to be boasting about his inside knowledge of the looming threat.”

The Post also quotes “a former senior U.S. counterterrorism official who also worked closely with members of the Trump national security team,” who called it “troubling.”

“After Trump’s meeting, senior White House officials took steps to contain the damage, placing calls to the CIA and National Security Agency.”

Trump’s sharing of the information “jeopardized a critical source of intelligence on the Islamic State.”

“This is code-word information,” said a U.S. official familiar with the matter, using terminology that refers to one of the highest classification levels used by American spy agencies. Trump “revealed more information to the Russian ambassador than we have shared with our own allies.”

The Trump White House last week had attempted to hide that Kislyak was present by not allowing U.S. Reporters or photographers into the meeting, but a photographer for the official Russian state news agency TASS was allowed, with his equipment, into the Oval Office, resulting in photos being posted on the internet, much to the White House’s embarrassment. Security experts denounced the lapse of controls.

“Two US officials,” according to Buzzfeed, “who were briefed on Trump’s disclosures last week confirmed to BuzzFeed News the veracity of the Post report, with one official noting that ‘it’s far worse than what has already been reported.'”

UPDATE I: 5:33 PM EDT –

How big a deal is this story? Washington Post fact-checker tweets it’s bigger than the “Access Hollywood” story in terms of traffic:

UPDATE II: 5:35 PM EDT –

July 6, 2016:

(h/t: Jennifer Epstein‏)

UPDATE III: 5:47 PM EDT –

Former Obama National Security Council member weighs in:

UPDATE IV: 5:52 PM EDT –

March, 2017: 

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Image by МИД России via Flickr and a CC license