Trump Defends Sharing Information on ISIS Threat With Russia -<br />By PETER BAKER and JULIE HIRSCHFELD DAVISMAY 16, 2017<br />WASHINGTON — President Trump on Tuesday defended his decision to share sensitive information about an Islamic State threat with Russian<br />officials as the White House once again struggled to reconcile seemingly conflicting accounts of the president’s actions.<br />“As president,” Mr. Trump wrote, “I wanted to share with Russia (at an openly scheduled W. H.<br />meeting) which I have the absolute right to do, facts pertaining to terrorism and airline flight safety.<br />“What the president discussed with the foreign minister was wholly appropriate to<br />that conversation and is consistent with the routine sharing of information between the president and any leaders with whom he’s engaged,” General McMaster said.<br />Asked about the conversation by reporters during a later appearance with Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the president of Turkey, Mr. Trump again did not deny providing the information,<br />but he instead cast it as an attempt to collaborate with Russia in the war against the Islamic State.<br />Intelligence officials worried that Mr. Trump, in his meeting with Sergey V. Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister,<br />and Sergey I. Kislyak, the Russian ambassador, provided enough details to effectively expose the source of the information and the manner in which it had been collected.
