Trump rebuts advisor's claims of false reporting on leaks to Russian FM

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — US President Donald Trump contradicted the position of his national security advisor on Tuesday, as Trump announced that he did share information related to ISIS with the Russians.

“As President I wanted to share with Russia (at an openly scheduled White House meeting) which I have the absolute right to do, facts pertaining to terrorism and airline flight safety,” Trump wrote in a tweet on Tuesday morning (local time). “Humanitarian reasons, plus I want Russia to greatly step up their fight against ISIS & terrorism.”

Later on Tuesday in a press conference, US National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster blamed "those violating confidentiality" and "leaking information to the media."

McMaster was asked if he was denying that he revealed information was classified.

"What the president discussed was appropriate," he added, describing the conversation as "wholly appropriate" McMaster also said that US officials don't tell the media whether diplomatic talks contain classified information.

McMaster said he was in the room with a number of other US officials in the meeting with foreign minister Sergey Lavrov.

US media including the Washington Post had reported that Trump shared information with the Russian FM during the his May 10 visit to the White House.

McMaster had categorized the reports as "false" on Monday.

"At no time, at no time, were intelligence sources or methods discussed," McMaster told reporters. "And the president did not disclose any military operations that were not already publicly known."

The Wasshington Post reported that several unnamed US security officials were critical of the situation.

“Everyone knows this stream is very sensitive, and the idea of sharing it at this level of granularity with the Russians is troubling,” WaPo quoted a former senior U.S. counter terrorism official as saying.

Trump “revealed more information to the Russian ambassador than we have shared with our own allies,” WaPo reported an unnamed US official familiar with the matter as saying.

WaPo reported that it was told by officials that Trump revealed the ISIS-held city where a US intelligence partner had detected a threat.

Such a leak could jeapordize the espionage capabilities of human intelligence sources on the ground in the Middle East.

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