Donald Trump has admitted he shared information about “terrorism and airline flight safety” with Russia.
The US President met with the Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, and ambassador to the US, Sergey Kislyak, at the White House last week.
On Monday reports emerged that he had shared highly classified information with the two men during the meeting.
Responding to the controversy on Twitter Mr Trump tweeted: “As President I wanted to share with Russia (at an openly scheduled W.H. meeting) which I have the absolute right to do, facts pertaining to terrorism and airline flight safety.”
Mr Trump said he shared the information for “Humanitarian reasons, plus I want Russia to greatly step up their fight against ISIS & terrorism”.
According to The Washington Post and others, during the meeting Mr Trump boasted of the great intelligence he had received about an Islamic State plot to use laptops to blow up planes.
That information had apparently been received from another country and was not America’s to share.
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