President Trump defended himself against an onslaught of criticism on Tuesday morning after a report said he shared 'highly classified' information with the Russians about ISIS operations that came from a US ally.

'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 said in two tweets.

Trump's tweets seemingly confirm what the Washington Post first reported early Monday evening. A number of White House and Trump administration officials had released statements slapping down the Post story.

Leading the pack was Trump's National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster, who told reporters outside the White House, 'The story that came out tonight is false.'

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President Trump used Twitter to defend himself Tuesday morning on the heels of a Washington Post report that said he shared highly classified information with the Russians

Trump's tweets seemingly confirm what the Washigton Post reported, which a flock of White House and administration officials initially denied

Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, US President Donald Trump, and Russian Ambassador to the United States Sergei Kislyak (L-R) talking during a meeting in the Oval Office at the White House

National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster called a Washington Post story 'false,' which said President Trump leaked 'highly classified' information to the Russians during an Oval Office meeting last week

Unnamed sources told the Washington Post that Trump had passed on highly restricted 'code word' information during his Oval Office meeting last week with Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov and Sergey Kislyak, the Russian ambassador to the United States.

'This is code-word information,' a U.S. official told the paper, referring to the top classification level. The president 'revealed more information to the Russian ambassador than we have shared with our own allies.'

McMaster forcefully disputed the Post report – although his denial stated the thrust of the Post story to be incorrect 'as reported.'

'The president and the foreign minister reviewed a range of common threats to our two countries, including threats to civil aviation. At no time — at no time — were intelligence sources or methods discussed,' McMaster said.

Post reporter Greg Miller said on CNN Monday night that the White House was 'playing word games to try to blunt the impact of the story' and that he 'absolutely' stood behind it.

On Tuesday morning, Trump blasted his fired former FBI Director James Comey for not sniffing out the leakers in the intelligence community who presumably divulged the information that appeared in the Post.

'I have been asking Director Comey & others, from the beginning of my administration, to find the LEAKERS in the intelligence community,' Trump stated.

On Tuesday morning, Trump blasted his fired former FBI Director James Comey for not sniffing out leakers in the intelligence community

The White House acknowledged last week that Trump's frustration with the intelligence leaks was a factor in his decision to fire Comey.

'You can't deny somebody -- that that wasn’t a problem,' Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the deputy White House press secretary said. 'And so I think that was just another one of the many reasons that he no longer had the confidence of the President or the rest of the FBI.'

Intelligence community leakers were also responsible for revealing a Department of Justice conversation with the White House about former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn.

Flynn told the vice president he did not discuss sanctions with Kisylak, the Russian ambassador with whom Trump is said to have discussed the classified information in front of in the Oval Office, during the transition. Justice had evidence to the contrary that it offered to the White House Counsel's office.

The Washington Post reported on the FBI's warning to the White House that Flynn had lied before it alerted the vice president. Mike Pence was left in the dark for two weeks as the White House looked into the acting attorney general's charges.

Sally Yates, a Barack Obama holdover who was running Justice, has since been dismissed. She testified last Monday that she was not the leaker - and doesn't know who is.

The Post dropped another bombshell yesterday that contained quotes from Trump in the Oval Office during his meeting last Wednesday with the Russians.

It didn't say Trump revealed sources and methods – but rather that he passed on to the Russians highly classified information obtained from an ally.

Trump revealed the information to Lavrov while boasting about his own sources of knowledge, according to an official familiar with it.

'I get great intel. I have people brief me on great intel every day,' Trump reportedly said.

Monday evening the White House didn't directly address the accusation that Trump shared classified information from a foreign government that he wasn't supposed to.

'The president did not disclose any military operations that were not already publicly known,' McMaster said instead, something the Post story never contended occurred.

'Two other senior officials who were present, including the secretary of state, remember the meeting the same way and have said so. Their on-the-record accounts should outweigh those of anonymous sources,' McMaster said in closely-watched remarks outside the White House, as reaction and concern rolled in from Capitol Hill.

'I was in the room — it didn’t happen,' he said.

McMaster then left the bouquet of microphones without answering any questions.

The information pertained to a terror threat to aviation using bombs contained in electronic devices like laptops.

Paul Ryan also spoke out on Monday night about the reports, calling for Trump and his office to provide a full account of the meeting in which he is being accused of sharing secrets with Russia.

‘We have no way of knowing what was said, but protecting our nation’s secrets is paramount,’ the statement from Ryan's spokesman, Doug Andres, read.

‘The speaker hopes for a full explanation of the facts from the administration.'

Sen. Jeff Merkley told DailyMail.com on Tuesday morning,' The president should be ashamed for compromising our security in this fashion'

The flurry of reports and counter-spin prompted the Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman, Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee, to warn of a 'downward spiral.'

'The White House has got to do something soon to bring itself under control and in order,' Corker said, Bloomberg reported. 'It’s got to happen,' he said.

'Obviously they’re in a downward spiral right now and they’ve got to figure out a way to come to grips [with] all that’s happening,' Corker added.

On Tuesday, reaction to the story, and to Trump's Twitter defense, wasn't much better.

'It's not helpful that this was with the Russians, right? I mean this is just weird,' noted Sen. Ben Sasse, a Nebraskan from Trump's own party.

Sasse pointed out on Morning Joe that the U.S. and Russia don't have aligned interests, as they're actively trying to fracture NATO.

'Putin is the enemy of the freedom of speech, religion, press and assembly, which is the beating heart of what America means,' Sasse said.

Sen. Jeff Merkley told DailyMail.com,' The president should be ashamed for compromising our security in this fashion.'

The Democrat who sits on the Senate Foreign Relations panel said a special prosecutor must be assigned to look into charges of collusion between Trump's presidential campaign and the Russian government.

ALL (WELL, SOME OF) THE PRESIDENT'S LEAKS The Trump administration has found itself hamstrung by a series of high-profile leaks to reporters. This week's Washington Post story describing the president sharing allegedly classified Israeli intelligence with Russian diplomats is only the latest example. Some of the resulting news stories put the White House in full-blown spin mode, while others have turned out to be inauthentic. January 25: The New York Times described a leaked draft of an executive order that would reopen CIA 'black site' prisons where terror suspects could be interrogated. Sean Spicer later said it was 'not a White House document,' and he had 'no idea where it came from.' February 2: News reports describe an angry Trump berating Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull over a refugee resettlement deal negotiated by the Obama administration. February 2: The Associated Press published an excerpt of a leaked transcript of a call between Trump and Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto in which Trump tells him he could send American troops to the border to deal with 'bad hombres down there.' February 5: The Times spoke to West Wing aides who revealed that they couldn't figure out how to work the light switches in the White House's Cabinet Room – and had to work in the dark as a result. February 9: The Washington Post leaned on classified information to report that then-National Security Advisor Michael Flynn had discussed the status of U.S. sanctions against Russia during secret meetings in December with Moscow's ambassador to the U.S., Sergey Kislyak. February 13: The Post reported that Sally Yates, dureing the days before she was removed from her post as acting attorney general, warned the Trump White House's top lawyer that Flynn had misled Vice President Mike Pence about his Kislyak contacts. February 14: The New York Times reported that Flynn was questioned by the FBI only a few days into his White House tenure, and that agents came away from the meeting believing he hadn't told them the whole truth about his Kislyak meetings. February 17: The Associated Press publishes an 11-page Homeland Security Department memo that proposed using 100,000 National Guard troops to police the southern U.S. border. (The White House said it was not an official document.) April 8: White House staffers dished dirt to the Post about a rapprochement between warring senior aides Jared Kushner and Steve Bannon – brokered by CHief of Staff Reince Priebus. May 15: The Post reported, based on leaks from 'current and former U.S. officials,' that the president revealed 'highly classified' information about the ISIS terror army to Russian diplomats in the Oval Office, upsetting a U.S. ally that had been the source of intelligence Trump handed over willingly. The White House insisted that none of the people in the room with Trump and the Russians saw the information exchange that way. May 16: The Times revealed, based on another leak, that it was Israel that had provided the intel in the first place. Israel's ambassador to the U.S. reaffirmed his country's willingness to work with Washington in the future. Advertisement

'I'm certainly concerned that the president shared code-word, top secret information with the Russians that could have compromised- maybe compromising - a very important relationship of information on ISIS,' he stated.

Sen. Chris Coons, a Democrat from Delaware, was also worried about the larger repercussions, during an interview with NPR.

'We have to ask ourselves what country would share with us absolutely vital, secret, information if they knew they can't trust our president to keep it secret,' Coons told NPR.

Former acting director of the CIA Mike Morell said the source of the information could be put in danger by the Russians and the media outlets that are trying to figure out where it came from.

He also repeated Coons' concerns that foreign powers will stop sharing intelligence with the U.S.

'The other damage ... is that foreign countries share intelligence with the United States regularly, and now they are going to take pause and question whether they should continue to do that ... if they're afraid that the information they're providing could be shared with an adversary of ours and theirs,' Morell warned.

At least one Democratic congressman suggested that Trump should be impeached over the allegations

ALL SMILES: Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, US President Donald Trump, and Russian Ambassador to the United States Sergei Kislyak (L-R) talking during a meeting in the Oval Office at the White House. Alexander Shcherbak/TASS

The Russian embassy in Washington released this photo of President Trump warmly shaking hands with ambassador Sergey Kislyak

Images of President Donald Trump meeting with Russia's Sergei Lavrov in the Oval Office were issued by the Russian state news agency TASS, and subsequently published by much of the global media

The report comes after a flap over release of photos from Trump's Oval Office meeting with Russia's top diplomats that occurred the morning after Trump fired Comey amid tumult over the FBI's Russia investigation.

As the latest sensational story to come out of Russia broke, White House press secretary Sean Spicer huddled with his communications team in the White House behind closed doors.

A series of press aides declined to comment to a group of reporters, including DailyMail.com, looking for confirmation or a denial that the president had passed on classified information to the nation's longtime adversary.

McMaster commented only as he ran into a pack of reporters in the White House.

'This is the last place I wanted to be. I'm leaving,' he said as a joke.

McMaster later confronted the White House press corps en masse.

'There's nothing that the president takes more seriously than the safety of the American people,' McMaster said in a statement Monday evening outside the White House.

'At no time were any intelligence sources or methods discussed, and no military operations were disclosed that were not already known publicly,' said national security advisor H.R. McMaster

Nancy Pelosi, speaking at a CNN town hall on Monday night, said that the reports about Trump, if true, would be 'very, very damaging.'

'It undermines the trust that we would have with our allies,' she told the network.

Rep. Adam Schiff of California called the story 'deeply disturbing' and said if it's true, the disclosure could jeopardize sources of very sensitive intelligence and relationships with key allies.

The White House's initial reaction was to throw a bevvy of written statements to reporters, including one by Secretary of State Rex Tillerson that it first provided to CNN.

Tillerson's statement did not deny the president had passed along secret information.

'During President Trump’s meeting with Foreign Minister Lavrov, a broad range of subjects were discussed, among which were common efforts and threats regarding counter-terrorism. During that exchange, the nature of specific threats were discussed, but they did not discuss sources, methods, or military operations,' Tillerson said.

In the same set of statements, Deputy National Security Advisor Dina Powell said: 'This story is false. The president only discussed the common threats that both countries faced.'

The president has broad authority to declassify information unilaterally, which would insulate him from having done anything illegal.

President Trump blasted his 2016 presidential election opponent, whom he called 'crooked' Hillary Clinton, as 'not fit' for office because of her 'careless' handling of classified information

Lower-level government officials who disclose highly-classified information, even without ill intent, can get prosecuted.

Trump ran, in part, by campaigning that Hillary Clinton had put the nation's security at risk through her use of a private email server while secretary of state.

'Crooked Hillary Clinton and her team 'were extremely careless in their handling of very sensitive, highly classified information,' Trump tweeted in July after Comey called her out in a press conference where he nevertheless didn't recommend prosecution. 'Not fit!'

Merkley told DailyMail.com on Tuesday that Trump's complaints about government leaking are 'incredibly ironic' now that 'he's the individual to leak the most sensitiv, the most classified information directly to the Russians.

'It's a continuation of the kind of dangerous, out-of-control, day-to-day activity of the White House,' he said.

An official said Trump revealed the city within ISIS territory where a U.S. ally detected the threat, according to unnamed officials.

White House press secretary Sean Spicer briefed Monday before the allegations against Trump came out

That could run the risk of compromising the source, since the Russians are engaged in a military campaign in Syria, where they are propping up dictator Bashar al-Assad.

McMaster is quoted in the article saying no sources or methods were disclosed, without denying Trump leaked classified information.

'The president and the foreign minister reviewed common threats from terrorist organizations to include threats to aviation,' said McMaster, who participated int he meeting. 'At no time were any intelligence sources or methods discussed, and no military operations were disclosed that were not already known publicly,' he said.

Looming behind Russia's meeting are congressional investigations and an FBI investigation into alleged Russian interference in the U.S. presidential election.

Trump fired Comey, who was atop the investigation, last week, drawing howls of protest from Democrats and some Republicans. Trump first attributed the firing to Comey's handling of Hillary Clinton's email scandal, but later told NBC Russia was on his mind when he made the decision.

'Everyone knows this stream is very sensitive, and the idea of sharing it at this level of granularity with the Russians is troubling,' a former U.S. counterterrorism official told the Post.

Trump's meeting with the Russians came during a week when he sacked his FBI Director, James Comey, who was overseeing an investigation of alleged Russian election interference

The timing of Trump's Russia meetings were noteworthy given the intense focus on all things Russia.

Moscow also put out images of Trump greeting a smiling Kislyak, Russia's ambassador to the U.S. They got released by the TASS news agency, the Russian embassy, and the Russian Foreign Ministry.

The White House kept U.S. photographers out, and didn't put any photo record out until a day after the fact.

The White House flickr account did not post a Kislyak photo with the president.

The official White House readout of Trump's meeting didn't mention Kislyak was there.

Trump trolled his critics late Thursday by tweeting out a photo of him and Lavrov – as well as an image of himself meeting with Ukraine's foreign minister.

'Yesterday, on the same day- I had meetings with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and the FM of Ukraine, Pavlo Klimkin. #LETSMAKEPEACE!' Trump wrote.

Trump's frank comments at a meeting that included Kislyak are all the more noteworthy because Kislyak is at the center of a burgeoning investigation into his presidential campaign's Russia contacts.

Trump fired former National Security Advisor Mike Flynn after Flynn was revealed to have met with Kislyak during the transition and then failing to tell Vice President Mike Pence about it.