Russia calls Trump allegation "nonsense" as U.S. allies worry
The Kremlin has dismissed reports that President Trump shared classified information with Russian officials last week as "complete nonsense," but some of America's allies are expressing concerns the U.S. leader could be an unreliable keeper of secrets.
The Washington Post's report on Monday claimed that the revelation made by Mr. Trump during his meeting with visiting Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov put a source of intelligence on the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) at risk.
White House officials reject the Post story, but they do not specifically deny that sensitive information came up at the meeting.
A former U.S. intelligence official has told CBS News that "inappropriate" information" was discussed by Mr. Trump during that Oval Office meeting with Lavrov and Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak last week.
Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Tuesday dismissed the reports as "yet more nonsense" and said that Moscow doesn't "want to have to do anything with it," adding that "there is nothing to confirm or deny."
The reports came several days after the White House faced criticism for a possible security breach after it allowed a Russian news service photographer into the Oval Office to snap photos of Mr. Trump with Lavrov and Kislyak last week.
"Could be a risk"
A senior European intelligence official told The Associated Press on Tuesday that his country might stop sharing information with the United States if it confirms President Trump shared classified details with Russian officials.
The official said doing so "could be a risk for our sources."
The official spoke only on condition that neither he nor his country be identified, because he was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.
Earlier, a senior German lawmaker expressed concern about the reports that President Trump revealed highly classified information about ISIS to Russian officials.
Burkhard Lischka said in a statement to The Associated Press that "if it proves to be true that the American president passed on internal intelligence matters that would be highly worrying."
Lischka, who sits on the German parliament's intelligence oversight committee, noted that Mr. Trump has access to "exclusive and highly sensitive information including in the area of combating terrorism."
The Social Democratic Party lawmaker said that if the U.S. president "passes this information to other governments at will, then Trump becomes a security risk for the entire western world."
Germany is heavily dependent on U.S. intelligence.
Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull wouldn't comment on the reports, or say whether the they would affect Australia's intelligence-sharing agreement with the U.S.
Australia is a member of the Five Eyes intelligence-sharing program with the U.S., Canada, Britain and New Zealand.
Turnbull declined to comment specifically on the report, but said during an interview Tuesday with Adelaide radio station 5AA that he is confident in the Australia-U.S. alliance. Turnbull called it "the bedrock of our national security."
New Zealand's Foreign Affairs Minister Gerry Brownlee noted in a statement that the report was rejected by senior U.S. officials.
Brownlee said a resolution to the situation in Syria requires a concerted effort from the U.S. and Russia, and he hoped the meeting between Mr. Trump and Lavrov would prove "a step towards that."