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The day after Donald Trump fired James Comey (because of “the Russia thing”), the only thing on his public schedule was a meeting in the Oval Office with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and the Russian Ambassador Sergei Kislyak. Trump didn’t allow American media or even White House photographers in the meeting. He did allow some Russian photographers in the meeting, because he thought that they were from the Russian government and he wanted to provide Vladimir Putin with personal photographic evidence of puppet skillz. As it turns out, the photographers were from a Russian media outlet (or something) and the photos were released publicly almost immediately. Some in the White House were mad about it, claiming that the Russians “tricked” them and now, suddenly, the Russians can’t be trusted.
At the same Oval Office meeting with the completely un-vetted photographers, Donald Trump revealed highly classified and highly sensitive intelligence information to the Russians. This story is absolutely horrifying.
President Trump revealed highly classified information to the Russian foreign minister and ambassador in a White House meeting last week, according to current and former U.S. officials, who said Trump’s disclosures jeopardized a critical source of intelligence on the Islamic State. 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, officials said.
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. After Trump’s meeting, senior White House officials took steps to contain the damage, placing calls to the CIA and the National Security Agency.
“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.”
For almost anyone in government, discussing such matters with an adversary would be illegal. As president, Trump has broad authority to declassify government secrets, making it unlikely that his disclosures broke the law. The CIA declined to comment, and the NSA did not respond to requests for comment. But officials expressed concern about Trump’s handling of sensitive information as well as his grasp of the potential consequences. Exposure of an intelligence stream that has provided critical insight into the Islamic State, they said, could hinder the United States’ and its allies’ ability to detect future threats.
“It is all kind of shocking,” said a former senior U.S. official who is close to current administration officials. “Trump seems to be very reckless and doesn’t grasp the gravity of the things he’s dealing with, especially when it comes to intelligence and national security. And it’s all clouded because of this problem he has with Russia.”
In his meeting with Lavrov, Trump seemed to be boasting about his inside knowledge of the looming threat. “I get great intel. I have people brief me on great intel every day,” the president said, according to an official with knowledge of the exchange.
[From WaPo]
That WaPo story has a ton of additional information about the highly sensitive nature of the information and how much Trump revealed, not to mention what a gut-punch it is for the American intelligence community. The CIA and NSA work with partners around the world and it sounds like the information Trump revealed came from someone who really put himself in harm’s way by cooperating with the Americans. Buzzfeed confirmed WaPo’s story and one official told Buzzfeed, “It’s far worse than what has already been reported.” All because Trump wanted to brag to the Russians. The Russians don’t even have to blackmail him – Trump is so f–king stupid that he’ll tell you whatever you want to know just because he’s the bigliest and best bad hombre in the room.
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Source: celebitchy.com
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