The information allegedly disclosed by President Donald Trump is sourced from an intelligence-sharing arrangement with a U.S. partner who did not authorize the president to pass its intelligence on to the Russians. | Getty White House shifts to vigorously defending Trump's Russia meeting Trump's national security adviser calls conversation 'wholly appropriate' but refuses to say whether the president divulged classified information.

President Donald Trump and his aides shifted their damage control strategy on Tuesday, defending Trump’s conversation with Russian officials about allegedly classified information as “wholly appropriate” — while stoking the theory that disloyal figures within the government are trying to undermine the president through leaks to the press.

Tuesday's tone marked a shift from the tack taken Monday evening by the Trump administration, with multiple aides — including national security adviser H.R. McMaster — aggressively pushing back against a Washington Post story alleging that the president had shared highly sensitive information with two Russian diplomats as "false."


By late Tuesday morning, McMaster was calling the “premise” of the article false, but he refused to deny that Trump had shared classified information and only said that "we don’t say what’s classified, what’s not classified.”

“What I will tell you is in the context of that discussion, what the president discussed with the foreign minister was wholly appropriate to that conversation and is consistent with the routine sharing of information between the president and any leaders with whom he's engaged,” McMaster told reporters in the White House briefing room.

He also tried to change the subject to the leaks that produced the story — a fixation of Trump’s. “I think the real issue, and I think what I'd like to see really debated more, is that our national security has been put at risk by those violating confidentiality and those releasing information to the press that could be used, connected with other information available, to make American citizens and others more vulnerable,” McMaster said.

The process continued in the afternoon as White House press secretary Sean Spicer slammed the leaks to the press as “frankly dangerous” and “extremely troubling” and painted the situation as a grave one in which certain people inside the government are trying to derail Trump.

“This is clearly a pattern of people releasing sensitive information to further what appears to be someone’s agenda,” Spicer told reporters at an off-camera briefing. “The idea that there is no concern, or seemingly no concern, over something like this being put out in the open, I think is frankly concerning, and it should be to every American.”

The argument echoed right-wing media outlets that have played up the notion that leaks to the press are an attempt to undermine Trump.

Spicer continued to frame Trump’s move to share information with Russia as routine, while declining to say whether or not the information Trump provided was classified. He repeatedly referenced statements from McMaster, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and deputy national security adviser Dina Powell — none of whom have denied that Trump shared classified information.

Spicer declined to comment on whether the information Trump share was provided by Israel, which the New York Times and other media outlets reported Tuesday afternoon.

The shift to a more offensive strategy came as the White House battles multiple scandals ahead of Trump’s first foreign trip as president, which will include a stop in Israel. Aides are still trying to contain the fallout from Trump’s abrupt firing last week of former FBI Director James Comey, who had been overseeing a probe into possible ties between Trump’s campaign and Russian officials as part of the Russian government’s interference in the 2016 election.

The latest controversy broke open late Monday afternoon when the Washington Post reported that Trump allegedly shared highly sensitive information with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Ambassador Sergey Kislyak during an Oval Office visit last week about an Islamic State threat.

The report said the sensitive information came from an intelligence-sharing arrangement with a U.S. partner that did not authorize the president to pass its intelligence on to the Russians. The Post also reported that his disclosure prompted senior White House officials to place damage-control phone calls to the CIA and National Security Agency.

In an early-morning flurry of tweets on Tuesday, Trump seemingly confirmed that he had shared information with the Russian officials, but denied there was anything inappropriate about his conversation.

“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,” Trump wrote on Twitter, breaking his message into two posts.

The president also returned to his long-running focus on finding the source of damaging leaks flowing out of the government.

“I have been asking Director Comey & others, from the beginning of my administration, to find the LEAKERS in the intelligence community.....” Trump tweeted without finishing his thought.

Speaking alongside President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey later on Tuesday, Trump mostly dodged questions about the scandal and declared that he had a “very, very successful meeting” last week with Lavrov.

As president, Trump has the authority to declassify information at his discretion, meaning his alleged actions are unlikely to rise to the level of criminal conduct.

But the reports have raised fresh questions about Trump’s ability to handle the commander-in-chief role and his coziness with Russia, an issue that cast a shadow over both his campaign and his early presidency. The prospect of Trump divulging classified information has also had many critics accusing him of hypocrisy, considering how frequently he attacked former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for mishandling classified information through her private email server.

The episode also raises the specter of allies curtailing their intelligence sharing programs with the U.S., which could have severe consequences for national security.

Russia, meanwhile, called the reports “dangerous.”

“Don’t read them. You can use them in various ways, but don’t read them — lately this isn’t just unhealthy, but dangerous,” Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova wrote in a Facebook post seemingly aimed at the Russian press.

In Washington, Republicans for the most part were cautious about attacking Trump over the reports.

Still, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) expressed frustration with the stream on controversies emerging from the White House as GOP lawmakers work on an ambitious package of conservative legislation.

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“I think we could do with a little less drama from the White House on a lot of things so that we can focus on our agenda, which is deregulations, tax reform and repealing and replacing Obamacare,” he said on Bloomberg TV.

Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, on Tuesday morning called the reports “very troubling” and asked that the panel be briefed immediately on the issue.

“The disclosure of highly classified information has the potential to jeopardize sources and to discourage our allies from sharing future information vital to our security,” Collins said in a statement. “There are conflicting reports about whether or not President Trump disclosed sensitive information to the Russians. Although the President has the legal authority to disclose classified information, it would be very troubling if he did share such sensitive reporting with the Russians.”

According to two sources, the House Intelligence Committee is expected to be briefed by CIA Director Mike Pompeo on Tuesday night. While the meeting with Pompeo, a former member of the panel, was previously scheduled, he is still expected to be grilled about Trump’s conversation with Russian officials.

Like Collins, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) expressed deep concerns about the reports that emerged the day before.

“The reports that the President shared sensitive intelligence with Russian officials are deeply disturbing,” McCain said in a statement. “Reports that this information was provided by a U.S. ally and shared without its knowledge sends a troubling signal to America’s allies and partners around the world and may impair their willingness to share intelligence with us in the future.”

