Russian Embassy
President Donald Trump meets with Russian Ambassador Sergei Kislyak.
- President Donald Trump infuriated US and Israeli intelligence when he disclosed details of a highly classified Israeli intelligence operation to Russian officials earlier this year.
- Vanity Fair reported on Thursday that a top US official told the Israelis last January that Russia has "leverages of pressure" over Trump.
President Donald Trump sparked widespread concern within the US and Israeli intelligence communities after he disclosed details of a highly classified Israeli intelligence operation to Russian officials earlier this year, according to a new Vanity Fair report.
The Washington Post first reported last May that Trump told Russia's foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, and Sergey Kislyak, then Russia's ambassador to the US, about ISIS's work to develop a laptop bomb that could pass through airport security undetected - information that was passed on to him from Israeli intelligence officials.
The information was highly classified and had not been disclosed even to close American allies.
Vanity Fair reported on Thursday that a top American spy told Israeli intelligence officials that US intelligence believed Russian President Vladimir Putin had "leverages of pressure" over the soon-to-be inaugurated president during a meeting at CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia just a few weeks before Trump's inauguration.
The American official warned that information provided to the White House could be leaked to the Russians and, therefore, eventually to the Iranians, who are Israel's greatest adversary.
But the Israelis reportedly did not treat this warning with much seriousness and continued sharing highly classified information with US intelligence, one of its closest allies.
Trump met with Lavrov and Kislyak in the Oval Office on May 10, the day after he fired former FBI Director James Comey, and told the Russians that he had "faced great pressure" as a result of Comey's investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election. He called the former top law enforcement official "crazy" and "a real nut job."
Moving on to national security issues, reportedly described the broad outlines of the Israeli intelligence to the Russians and named the Syrian city in which it was gathered.
'A hell of price to pay for a president's mistake'
When this
"Trump betrayed us," a senior Israeli military official told Vanity Fair. "And if we can't trust him, then we're going to have to do what is necessary on our own if our back is up against the wall with Iran."
Former CIA deputy director Michael Morell told CBS News in May that Trump's apparently unvetted disclosure was "highly damaging" and would negatively impact American relationships with foreign allies.
"Third countries who provide the United States with intelligence information will now have pause," Morell said.
Morrell predicted that the Russians would attempt to determine the way in which the Israelis collected the intelligence, and would potentially target the source of the information, which Vanity Fair reported was embedded deep within ISIS territory in Syria.
"The Russians will undoubtedly try to figure out the source or the method of this information to make sure that it is not also collecting on their activities in Syria - and in trying to do that they could well disrupt the source," Morell said.
One former Israeli official would not disclose what happened to the source, but told Vanity Fair, "Whatever happened to him, it's a hell of price to pay for a president's mistake."
This came as the FBI was already engaged in an extensive investigation into Russian interference into the 2016 US election and potential collusion between the Trump campaign and Russian officials.