British intelligence sources say Donald Trump’s disclosure of highly classified information to Russian officials during a meeting at the White House was “amateurish” and “crass”, but insisted it would not stop the UK and other nations sharing material with the US.



BuzzFeed News spoke to four UK intelligence sources, including two former senior officials and an ex-officer, after it emerged that Trump had revealed classified information during a meeting with Russia’s foreign minister Sergey Lavrov and ambassador Sergey Kislyak last week.

It was later reported that Israel was the original source of the information, which concerned ISIS plots to smuggle explosive laptops on to planes. It appears the intelligence had been shared with Russia without prior coordination with Israel.

Britain is the USA’s closest intelligence partner, routinely sharing information, surveillance programmes, and even bases, with British and American staff sitting side by side.

The UK sources said it was not unusual for the US to share intelligence with a third country without first coordinating with the country that provided it. But they said it was a new and concerning development that this latest disclosure came direct from the president and may have been unintentional.

Usually such information is shared with a specific purpose – for example, it could directly affect the country with whom the information is shared – and it is shared at an agency level, not direct from the Oval Office.

“There is a different dynamic here: It is the US president having conversations with senior Russian diplomats. And it happened in the wrong place,” one UK source said.

“This doesn’t seem like intelligence sharing with Russia, but more like Trump grandstanding,” they added.

One source described the disclosure as “amateurish” and “crass”. Two suggested the president possibly didn’t fully understand what he was sharing.