European official says their country might stop sharing intelligence with US if Trump leaked to Russia

A European country has reportedly said it may stop sharing intelligence with the US, if it transpires Donald Trump provided classified information to Russia.

In a warning that will further add to concerns about the US intelligence community amid the fallout of Mr Trump’s actions, the senior official said they may take that step, despite the President’s claim that he had the right to share the details with Russia.

The Associated Press did not identify which country the official came from, but the official said sharing intelligence with Washington, “could be a risk for our sources”.

McCain releases full statement on Trump revelations pic.twitter.com/fgLgtQ744m — Rebecca Shabad (@RebeccaShabad) May 16, 2017

The warning came as Mr Trump and the White House sought both to deny some of the claims initially made by the Washington Post in its article about the president’s leaking of information to Russia, and defend his actions.

In a series of tweets, Mr Trump sought to defend his actions and issue a warning to those who had leaked the information to the media.

“I wanted to share with Russia (at an openly scheduled WH meeting) which I have the absolute right to do, facts pertaining ... to terrorism and airline flight safety,” he wrote. “Plus I want Russia to greatly step up their fight against ISIS & terrorism.”

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The Post said that Mr Trump shared details about an Isis terror threat related to the use of laptop computers on aircraft with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Russian ambassador to the US, Sergey Kislyak. The information had come from a third country, apparently in the Middle East, that had asked that it be closely held.

Indeed, so sensitive was the information that it was considered “code word classified”, one of the highest levels of classification used by the US intelligence community.

The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation

11 show all The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation

1/11 Paul Manafort Mr Manafort is a Republican strategist and former Trump campaign manager. He resigned from that post over questions about his extensive lobbying overseas, including in Ukraine where he represented pro-Russian interests. Getty Images

2/11 Mike Flynn Mr Flynn was named as Trump's national security adviser but was forced to resign from his post for inappropriate communication with Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak. He had misrepresented a conversation he had with Mr Kislyak to Vice President Mike Pence, telling him wrongly that he had not discussed sanctions with the Russian. Getty Images

3/11 Sergey Kislyak Mr Kislyak, the Russian ambassador to the US, is at the centre of the web said to connect President Donald Trump's campaign with Russia. Reuters

4/11 Roger Stone Mr Stone is a former Trump adviser who worked on the political campaigns of Richard Nixon, George HW Bush, and Ronald Reagan. Mr Stone claimed repeatedly in the final months of the campaign that he had backchannel communications with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and that he knew the group was going to dump damaging documents to the campaign of Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton - which did happen. Mr Stone also had contacts with the hacker Guccier 2.0 on Twitter, who claimed to have hacked the DNC and is linked to Russian intelligence services. Getty Images

5/11 Jeff Sessions The US attorney general was forced to recuse himself from the Trump-Russia investigation after it was learned that he had lied about meeting with Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak. Getty Images

6/11 Carter Page Mr Page is a former advisor to the Trump campaign and has a background working as an investment banker at Merrill Lynch. Mr Page met with Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak during the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland. Mr Page had invested in oil companies connected to Russia and had admitted that US Russia sanctions had hurt his bottom line. Reuters

7/11 Jeffrey "JD" Gorden Mr Gordon met with Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak during the 2016 Republian National Convention to discuss how the US and Russia could work together to combat Islamist extremism should then-Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump win the election. The meeting came days before a massive leak of DNC emails that has been connected to Russia. Creative Commons

8/11 Jared Kushner Mr Kushner is President Donald Trump's son-in-law and a key adviser to the White House. He met with a Russian banker appointed by Russian President Vladimir Putin in December. Mr Kushner has said he did so in his role as an adviser to Mr Trump while the bank says he did so as a private developer. Mr Kushner has also volunteered to testify in the Senate about his role helping to arrange meetings between Trump advisers and Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak. Getty Images

9/11 James Comey Mr Comey was fired from his post as head of the FBI by President Donald Trump. The timing of Mr Comey's firing raised questions around whether or not the FBI's investigation into the Trump campaign may have played a role in the decision. Getty Images

10/11 Preet Bharara Mr Bahara refused, alongside 46 other US district attorney's across the country, to resign once President Donald Trump took office after previous assurances from Mr Trump that he would keep his job. Mr Bahara had been heading up several investigations including one into one of President Donald Trump's favorite cable television channels Fox News. Several investigations would lead back to that district, too, including those into Mr Trump's campaign ties to Russia, and Mr Trump's assertion that Trump Tower was wiretapped on orders from his predecessor. Getty Images

11/11 Sally Yates Ms Yates, a former Deputy Attorney General, was running the Justice Department while President Donald Trump's pick for attorney general awaited confirmation. Ms Yates was later fired by Mr Trump from her temporary post over her refusal to implement Mr Trump's first travel ban. She had also warned the White House about potential ties former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn to Russia after discovering those ties during the FBI's investigation into the Trump campaign's connections to Russia. Getty Images

Reports said that Mr Trump later was informed he had broken protocol and White House officials placed calls to the National Security Agency and the CIA in move to try and minimise any damage.

The White House has pushed back against those reports, but not denied that classified information was disclosed in the May 10 meeting between Mr Trump and Russian diplomats. The Kremlin dismissed the reports as “complete nonsense”.

Senior Republican John McCain, a senator from Arizona, said the report of Mr Trump sharing the information with Russia was “deeply disturbing”.

“Regrettably, the time President Trump spent sharing sensitive information with the Russians, was time he did not spend focussing on Russia’s aggressive behaviour, including its interference in American and European elections, it’s illegal invasion of Ukraine and annexation of Crimea,” he said.