(RNN) – The Washington Post is reporting that President Donald Trump revealed “highly classified information” to the Russian ambassador during a meeting at the White House last week.
The Post cited anonymous "current and former U.S. officials." The newspaper said the information came from a U.S. partner through an intelligence-sharing arrangement so sensitive the details have been withheld from U.S. allies and agencies within the U.S. government.
The partner had not given the U.S. permission to disclose the information, the Post said.
The president has broad authority to declassify government secrets, which makes it unlikely Trump broke the law. However, for almost anyone else in government, discussing sensitive classified information with an adversary would be against the law, the Post reported.
The post alleged that Trump shared more information with the visiting Russians than with its own allies - Trump met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Ambassador Sergey Kislyak in the Oval Office, a meeting where no U.S. media were allowed to attend but one Russian outlet was permitted.
Trump discussed a possible terror threat with Lavrov, going so far as to identify the city in which it was being planned by the Islamic State. The article said that Russia could use that information to identify U.S. or intelligence.
No other news source has confirmed the information in the Post report, and none of the information has been independently verified.
National security adviser H.R. McMaster called the story false.
"At no time were intelligence sources or methods discussed," he said.
To read more of the Washington Post article click here.
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