ABCNews.com(WASHINGTON) — The bombshell report that President Donald Trump allegedly shared highly classified intelligence with Russian officials has prompted a number of statements from the president’s top advisers and the president himself.
Questions continue to swirl in the wake of the allegations, reported first by The Washington Post Monday afternoon.
Here is a roundup of the facts that have emerged.
What we know
According to The Washington Post, Trump shared classified information with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Sergey Kislyak, the Russian ambassador to the U.S., last Wednesday when they met at the White House.
The Post reported that the nature of the information was related to an Islamic State terrorist threat and gathered by a United States intelligence partner. Russia is not a member of the intelligence-sharing arrangement from which the information originated.
The White House released a statement shortly after the report was initially published, calling the story “false.”
National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster issued a statement outside of the White House on Monday, saying, “At no time were intelligence sources or methods discussed. And the president did not disclose any military operations that were not already publicly known.”
“I was in the room. It didn’t happen,” McMaster added.
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson also released a statement, saying that “the nature of specific threats were discussed, but they did not discuss sources, methods or military operations.”
A senior U.S. official told ABC News that White House officials placed calls to the CIA and the NSA to alert the agencies that the president had shared information with the Russians. The official said that these calls were intended to make sure there was no misunderstanding about what the president had said.
The official also told ABC News that the meeting’s notes were edited to remove sensitive information, but the official said that such redactions were routine.
Trump suggested in two Twitter posts this morning that he had the authority to divulge information with his Russian guests.
“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,” he wrote.
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….
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 16, 2017
…to terrorism and airline flight safety. Humanitarian reasons, plus I want Russia to greatly step up their fight against ISIS & terrorism.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 16, 2017
During a press briefing Tuesday, McMaster said that Trump “wasn’t even aware where this information came from. He wasn’t briefed on the source or method of the information [collection] either.”
What we still don’t know
The biggest questions that remain is what exactly Trump said during the interaction, as well as any specific details about the intelligence that was disclosed.
McMaster and Tillerson both noted that the methods and specific sources of the information were not discussed, but John Cohen, an ABC News contributor and a former counterterrorism and intelligence official at the Department of Homeland Security, notes that every specific piece of information associated with such intelligence could give clues and lead to action.
Moreover, McMaster said that Trump made his decision based on the nature of the conversation. If there was no prior discussion about the disclosure, a typical inter-agency approval procedure may not have occurred.
“He made the decision in the context of the conversation which was wholly appropriate,” McMaster said of Trump.
John Cohen, an ABC News contributor and a former counterterrorism and intelligence official at the Department of Homeland Security, said the intelligence community and National Security Council have a very deliberative process for sharing sensitive information.
“If the president wants to share intelligence with a country like Russia and ultimately if the original source of the intelligence is a foreign country, whoever is coordinating with the country — whether it’s the CIA or the NSA — they go back and get permission from that country. The second part of the process is our intelligence officials will take a subset of the information that was originally provided so they can convey the threat and not disclose sources and methods and other sensitive information,” Cohen said.
According to The Post, “The partner had not given the United States permission to share the material with Russia,” suggesting the process Cohen described was either ignored or retroactively done.
“It creates the risk that the original provider of the information will be less inclined to share sensitive intelligence in the future,” Cohen said. “That, I am sure, is what has intelligence officials concerned.”
Other key questions that still need to be answered include: which country (or agency) provided the intelligence in question to the U.S.; whether or not the conversation between Trump and the Russian officials was recorded; and why Trump decided to share the information with the Russians.
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