Trump Hands Sensitive Classified Intelligence to Russian Diplomats – Right There in The Oval Office
On This Day In 2017
It was about as bad as one could imagine. In a private meeting with Russia’s top foreign affairs team, President Donald Trump simply gave them extremely highly-classified information about a planned ISIS operation. Doing so exposed our top secret intelligence-gathering capabilities and also revealed the methods and involvement of a vital security partner of ours.
Oddly, the Trump Administration barred the White House Press Pool from entering the Oval Office to document that meeting. Guess who they did permit to attend? A Russian state photographer!
As The Washington Post reported: “That’s right. Although the encounter between Trump, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, and Ambassador Sergey Kislyak took place in the center of American power, it was Tass, the official Russian news agency, that had the pictures.”
Note: This meeting came the day after Trump fired Jim Comey for...investigating Trump’s apparent chummy friendship with the Russian government. “With the sort of gruff pragmatism a Mafia don would use to justify the necessity of a hit, (Trump explained to his guests), “I faced great pressure because of Russia. That’s taken off,” noted Vanity Fair.
It makes you wonder: Why DOES Trump seem to be so very friendly with – and partial towards -- Russian leaders?
This meeting came at a huge cost: Vanity Fair reported that the secrets Trump chose to give Putin's men included details of an Israeli intelligence operation inside Syria. Their dangerous mission uncovered ISIS plans to blow up airliners using bombs hidden in laptops.
The fact that Israel was able to successfully sneak into Syria to infiltrate enemy cells and freely gather info was extraordinarily sensitive; the kind of knowledge, that if it remains private, can provide useful information about our enemies for years to come. But obviously Trump’s unfathomable gift to the Russians ended that operation.
Dive Deeper
Tass had the pictures. But Reuters has the details
The Washington Post tried to unravel it all. But, it seems certain details of the unusual Trump/Russian coziness may never be revealed.
Vanity Fair has the details of spy operation Trump destroyed