Trump says he has 'right to share facts with Russia'

Washington, May 16: US President Dold Trump insisted on Tuesday he had the right to share information with Russia related to terrorism and other issues, his first public response to the revelation that he disclosed classified information at an Oval Office meeting last week.

The President made his first statement on Twitter following a series of denials from White House officials.

“...I wanted to share with Russia (at an openly scheduled White House meeting) which I have the absolute right to do, facts pertaining to terrorism and airline flight safety, humanitarian reasons, plus I want Russia to step up their fight against ISIS & terrorism,” he tweeted.

The Washington Post reported on Monday that the President shared intelligence from a US ally in a meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Ambassador Sergey Kislyak.

The Post, citing unmed officials, also reported that Trump went off script during the meeting, describing details about an Islamic State group terror threat related to the use of laptop computers on airplanes, revealing the city where the information was gathered. The Trump administration immediately rejected the claims as “false”.

“I was in the room, it didn’t happen,” H.R. McMaster, Trump’s tiol Security Adviser, said on Monday.

“At no time were intelligence sources or methods discussed and the President did not disclose any military operations that weren’t already publicly known,” McMaster said.

However, on Tuesday Trump took to Twitter to defend his actions, appearing to contradict the denials that he had shared intelligence with the Russian officials.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the issue was not worth confirming or denying, calling it “nonsense”.

“For us it is not an issue, it’s more nonsense,” Peskov said when asked about the Washington Post report. (IANS)