Trump: I never said 'Israel' in meeting with Russians

President Donald Trump on Monday denied divulging Israel as the source behind highly classified intelligence he allegedly shared with Russian officials, bringing attention back to the scandals that are engulfing his White House while he’s on his first foreign trip.

Citing current and former U.S. officials, The Washington Post reported last week that Trump disclosed a sensitive Islamic State plot to the Russian foreign minister and ambassador during a conclave earlier this month. Later reports pointed to Israel as the original source of the intelligence.


The reports, however, generally did not allege that Trump specifically told the Russians that Israel may have been the source, and it’s unclear whether Trump even knew who the source was.

Trump, who is in Israel on the second stop of his foreign trip, delivered brief remarks alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The two then shook hands for the cameras as reporters shouted questions.

Bloomberg’s Margaret Talev asked the prime minister whether he had any concerns about intelligence cooperation with the U.S., according to the White House press pool.

“The intelligence cooperation is terrific,” Netanyahu told reporters. Trump paused for a moment and halted the press from leaving the room. “Hey, folks,” he said. “Just so you understand, I never mentioned the word or the name ‘Israel.’ Never mentioned it during that conversation.”

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He looked toward Netanyahu as he gestured toward the pack of reporters. “They were all saying I did,” the president said. “So you had another story wrong. Never mentioned the word ‘Israel.’”

As the two leaders walked away, Netanyahu reiterated that “intelligence cooperation is terrific.”

“And it’s never been better,” he said.

Although Trump’s foreign travel provides a reprieve from Washington, Monday’s questioning is evidence that not even distance can separate the president from the controversies he’s generated at home. And Trump’s impromptu remarks on Monday could create more political damage, as the president appeared to further confirm that he had shared other highly sensitive information.

Trump last week characterized his meeting with the Russians as “very, very successful” and tweeted that he had “the absolute right” to share information with the Kremlin. Meanwhile, White House press secretary Sean Spicer contended last week that “it would be impossible” for Trump to share the source of the intelligence because he was never briefed on it. And Secretary of State Rex Tillerson told reporters aboard Air Force One en route to Israel, “I don’t know that there’s anything to apologize for.”

Trump landed in Tel Aviv after a historic flight from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia; the two nations have no diplomatic relations. Netanyahu and Israeli President Reuven Rivlin welcomed the president upon his arrival.

“I have come to the sacred and ancient land to reaffirm the unbreakable bond between the United States and the state of Israel,” Trump said. His time in Saudi Arabia, he said, has given him “new reasons for hope” of achieving peace in the Middle East.

The Israel portion of Trump’s trip included a stop at Rivlin’s residence in Jerusalem for a bilateral meeting, where Trump joked that the onus of Middle East peace will fall on longtime Trump Organization negotiator Jason Greenblatt and U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman.

“If not, you’ll be blamed because I just put it on record,” Trump quipped.

The president also visited the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, where Jesus was crucified and where his tomb lay, and the Western Wall, becoming the first sitting U.S. president to patronize the holiest prayer site for Jews.

Cameras captured Trump, donning a black yarmulke, touching the Western Wall and seemingly saying a prayer. No Israeli officials accompanied Trump, whose administration had a diplomatic rift ahead of the trip on whether the Western Wall was part of Israel.

After a senior U.S. official asserted to Israeli leaders that the wall is “not your territory,” national security adviser H.R. McMaster declined to clean up the comments, telling reporters, “That sounds like a policy decision.”

Spicer later insisted the Western Wall is “clearly in Jerusalem,” which raised the question: Where is Jerusalem? Both the Israelis and Palestinians claim it as their capital.

