WASHINGTON _ Some senators expressed shock _ while others reacted cautiously _ to a report Monday evening alleging that President Donald Trump revealed highly classified information about Islamic State plots gleaned by a U.S. ally to senior Russian officials.
The Washington Post reported in an article Monday evening that Trump appeared to be boasting about receiving "great intel" when he allegedly made the disclosure in the Oval Office, which the ally had not cleared American officials to share. The White House, however, is denying that he did.
"Obviously, if the allegations are true, that would be very, very troubling," said Senate Foreign Relations Chairman Bob Corker, R-Tenn. "To compromise a source is something that you just don't do, and that's why we keep the information that we get from intelligence sources so close is to prevent that from happening."
Other senators were more measured, however.
"We just have an initial report, so it's very difficult to comment until we get all facts. I'm not going jump to any conclusion until we get all the facts, as much as I trust The Washington Post," Senate Armed Services Chairman John McCain, R-Ariz., said.
Fellow national security hawk Sen. Lindsey Graham also is waiting for further information.
"I don't know if it's accurate or not. If it's accurate, it'd be troubling," the South Carolina Republican said.
Sen. James E. Risch, an Idaho Republican who serves on the Intelligence Committee, told reporters he was not yet aware of the report as he headed to Monday evening's floor votes. The same was true of Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa.
But Sen. Chris Coons had read it.
"That's really shocking, and there's obviously going to be a lot more work for us this week," said the Democrat from Delaware. "It's a reminder that the president, I think somewhat recklessly, chose to welcome the foreign minister of Russia and the ambassador (from) Russia into an Oval Office meeting with reporters who apparently hadn't been cleared for that.
"The suggestion that he might have shared highly classified information inappropriately with the Russian foreign minister is deeply troubling," Coons said.
And Sen. Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Intelligence Committee, tweeted a link to the Post story along with his initial reaction.
"If true, this is a slap in the face to the intel community. Risking sources & methods is inexcusable, particularly with the Russians," he wrote.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, a former Intelligence Committee chair, told reporters she has a lot of questions to ask. But she also appeared to give Trump the benefit of the doubt _ at least for now.
"It does take a period of time to understand it and it's awful easy to slip ...," the California Democrat said when asked whether she believes Trump has a solid grasp of what information is deemed classified.
Senate Foreign Relations member Chris Murphy, a leading critic of Trump, called it "another very disturbing trend of careless behavior by this administration."
The Connecticut Democrat also called on GOP lawmakers to step up efforts to investigate possible Trump-Russia ties.
"I don't know when it will be enough for Republicans to understand that we need to get to the bottom of the connection between the president ... and the Russian government," he said. "But if this story is true it's another brick in the wall of a really, really troubling connection between Trump and the Russian government."
Any sitting U.S. president has the authority to declassify any information he or she sees fit, making it unlikely that Trump broke the law if he did indeed tell Russia's foreign minister and ambassador to Washington about an ISIS plot involving laptop computers and airliners, as the Post article reported.
A senior White House official denied the Post report.
"This story is false. The president only discussed the common threats that both countries faced," Dina Powell, deputy national security adviser for strategy, who also attended the Oval Office meeting with the Russian officials, said in a statement.
Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster, Trump's national security adviser, appeared at the press microphones outside the West Wing at about 7 p.m. Monday and said the Post article, "as it came out tonight, is false."
"The president and the foreign minister reviewed common threats from terrorist organizations to include threats to aviation," McMaster said. "At no time were any intelligence sources or methods discussed and no military operations were disclosed that were not already known publicly."
McMaster added: "I was in the room, it didn't happen."
The Post cited multiple current and former U.S. officials. Notably, the Post report does not allege that those things were discussed in the meeting.
The report, despite the White House denial, is just the latest Russia-related matter Trump and his team _ and, by extension, Hill Republicans _ must deal with as they prepare for a major overseas diplomatic trip and try to keep their domestic agenda on track.
For instance, the FBI and multiple congressional panels are investigating Russia's 2016 presidential election meddling, including possible ties between Trump associates and Russian agents.
