INTELLIGENCE/LEAKS/RUSSIA/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “The classified information that President Donald Trump shared last week with Russian officials had been gathered by Israeli intelligence, according to U.S. officials familiar with the matter, a disclosure that could have far-reaching consequences for U.S. national security.
The intelligence—concerning terrorist threats against airliners—was meant for U.S. eyes only and was provided as part of a longstanding sharing agreement that is predicated on mutual assurances of secrecy, these people said.
Mr. Trump defended on Tuesday [5-16-17] his decision to share the information with the Russians, writing on Twitter that he had the ‘absolute right’ to discuss threats with visiting dignitaries. H.R. McMaster, the president’s national security adviser, described the president’s disclosures as ‘wholly appropriate.’
The fallout left lawmakers on both sides of the aisle rattled, as Mr. Trump prepared to make his first foreign trip as president later this week.”
-Shane Harris and Carol E. Lee, “Israel Provided Intelligence Trump Shared With Russia, Officials Say,” The Wall Street Journal online, May 17, 2017 7:54pm