Israel was reportedly the source of the classified intelligence Trump revealed to Russia

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, President Donald Trump.

(Image credit: Alex Wong/Getty Images)

published 16 May 2017

Israel was apparently the source of the classified information that President Trump spilled to Russian officials in a meeting last week, The New York Times reported Tuesday, citing a current and a former American official. Israel is a key U.S. ally, and The New York Times noted that Trump's disclosure "also raises the possibility that the information could be passed to Iran, Russia's close ally and Israel's main threat in the Middle East."

Israeli officials did not confirm the U.S. officials' claims, and Israeli ambassador Ron Dermer insisted that Israel "has full confidence in our intelligence-sharing relationship with the United States and looks forward to deepening that relationship in the years ahead under President Trump." However, Israel was worried about Trump's potential to overshare as far back as January, when "American officials warned their Israeli counterparts to be careful about what they told the Trump administration because it could be leaked to the Russians," The New York Times reported.

Trump insisted Tuesday morning on Twitter that he had an "absolute right" to share the information in his meeting at the White House with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak. National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster claimed at a press briefing Tuesday that Trump "wasn't even aware" of where the information he revealed "came from," but McMaster insisted that it was "wholly appropriate" to share in the "context of the conversation." The president does have intelligence privileges not afforded to other senior officials, including the ability to unilaterally declassify information.