Donald Trump appeared to confirm that he leaked intelligence from Israel in a meeting with Russian officials one week ago, in an unscripted remark with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on…<\/b>
\nOn May 10, in a meeting with two top Russian officials, Donald Trump reportedly revealed highly classified intelligence information about an ISIS terror plot \u2014 top secret intelligence that according to a report in The New York Times last week was passed on to the United States from sources in Israel, a country with whom the U. S. holds a prized and highly sensitive intelligence-sharing relationship.
But the White House, expectedly, has not confirmed the source of the information and in fact, National Security Adviser H. R. McMaster characterized Trump\u2019s conversation with the two Russians \u2014 Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Ambassador to the United States Sergey Kislyak \u2014 including his disclosure of the top secret information as \u201cwholly appropriate, \u201d adding that Trump himself was not aware of the information\u2019s source.
However, on Monday during Trump\u2019s first official state visit to Israel, Trump made impromptu remarks during a photo opportunity with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that appeared to confirm that he did, in fact, pass classified intelligence to the Russians \u2014 and that the information came via Israel.
As photographers and reporters were being ushered out of a room where Trump and Netanyahu had just finished posing for photographs, Trump stopped them, and made a statement that clearly had not been part of any prepared script or agenda for the public portion of the meeting.
\u201cJust so you understand, I never mentioned the word or the name \u2018Israel, ‘\u201d Trump told the press gathering in Jerusalem. \u201cNever mentioned it during that conversation. They were all saying I did. So you had another story wrong. Never mentioned the word \u2018Israel.’\u201d
Watch video of the astonishing moment, and Trump\u2019s off-the-cuff remarks, below.
Really confusing moment here where Trump stops the press from being ushered out of his photo spray with PM Netanyahu. Full video\u2014> pic.twitter.com\/A7UVcw3Zt2
\u2014 Tom Namako (@TomNamako) May 22,2017
\u201cIsrael has refused to confirm or deny that Trump\u2019s disclosure involved Israeli intelligence, as is standard practice; confirming it would just make it worse, \u201d wrote Vox.com foreign policy expert Sarah Wildman, after the bizarre Trump pronouncement. \u201cBut now Trump has gone off script and seems to have done it for them.\u201d
Trump still non-denying denying that he shared classified intel with Russian officials. Here\u2019s what story said: https: \/\/t.co\/38I6MuueIx https: \/\/t.co\/DW9Ar8I6vn
\u2014 Greg Miller (@gregpmiller) May 22,2017
\u201cTrump is the denying an allegation that, literally, no news organization made, \u201d wrote CNN Editor-At-Large Chris Cilizza on Monday. \u201cHe\u2019s also implicitly confirming that, yes, he did talk to the Russians about classified information.\u201d
The intelligence information passed by Trump to the Russians, according to media reports, may have blown the cover of a deeply embedded Israeli spy inside the ISIS organization \u2014 one who is considered the \u201cmost valuable source of information on external plotting by Islamic State.\u201d
[Featured Image by Amos Ben Gershom\/Getty Images]<\/p>\n

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