Trump’s tweets today have confirmed the reports (in at least the British media) that the intel was about the use of laptops to attempt to smuggle bombs aboard aircraft. The one other piece that is emerging, and the reason that an operative may be compromised, is that Trump told the Russians the city the intel originated from.
This intelligence was obviously the reason that a selective ban on the carrying laptops on certain flights was announced last week by both the UK and US.
Effective confirmation this was the nature of the intel came last night from McMaster in his prepared statement.
The president of [sic] the foreign minister reviewed a range of common threats to our two countries, including threats to civil aviation.
This morning we got further confirmation from the horse’s ass Trump twitter storm (two quoted and reformatted:
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. Humanitarian reasons, plus I want Russia to greatly step up their fight against ISIS & terrorism.
Trump claims he had the legal authority to “declassify” the intel by flapping his lips. While true, and the difference with the Clinton case, is that it had come from another country on the understanding it would not be shared. The originating country presumably knew that it would be shared among the “five eyes” and were happy with this. It is how the British came to their ban and the details of the threat can be inferred from the laptop bans and the others in the “five” that did not institute a ban.
While not illegal, Trump has acted in a way to compromise intelligence sources vital to the security of four other countries besides the United States. Since the prime duty of any government is the protection of its citiizens from external threats, Trump has failed his basic “mission statement”. Arguably he has violated his oath of office by failing to protect the people and therefore endangering the Constitution’s protection of civil liberties.
This may well not be the “final straw” however it is now clear that several branches of law enforcement and the intelligence community have him in their sights. I suspect we will see how they take him down in months rather than years.