White House Deemed Intel Trump Shared With Russians Too Sensitive for CNN

CNN is reporting that in March, the Trump administration blocked the network from sharing the intelligence that Trump last week shared with two Russian officials, arguing that it was highly classified:

The concern, US officials told CNN in late March, was that publishing certain information, including a city where some of the intelligence was collected, could tip off adversaries about the sources and methods used to gather the intelligence.

Over several days, US intelligence officials spent hours on conference calls making specific requests to CNN to withhold certain details of the intelligence information.

The report continues:

The White House hasn’t denied that the President appears to have let the Russian government in on information so highly sensitive that the US government had previously told CNN that publishing it would endanger lives and destroy intelligence-gathering methods used to keep an eye on terrorist groups.

On Monday, National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster said the Washington Post’s report that Trump revealed highly classified with Russian officials, “as reported,” was “false.” He also added that the conversation in the meeting “was nothing that you would not know from open-source reporting.”

None of this turned out to be true. Trump himself admitted to sharing intel with Russia, and on Tuesday McMaster told reporters that the intel Trump shared was “wholly appropriate.” CNN’s report indicates that Trump shared intel that was not, as McMaster previously claimed, “from open-source reporting,” but McMaster declined to confirm whether the information was classified.