reporter: the story is a political nightmare for the trump white house, especially because, as a candidate, donald trump made such an issue out of hillary clinton s handling of classified information. we can t have someone in the oval office who doesn t understand the meaning of the word confidential or classified. reporter: presidents have the authority to declassify anything, the question is, why he would share it with an adversary? the white house insists he was soliciting russian help in the fight against isis. the post story suggests trump was trying to show off, quoting him telling the russians, i get great intel. i have people brief me on great intel every day. mcmaster said the president could not have told the russians the source of the information because he didn t know the source. the president wasn t even aware of where this information came from. he wasn t briefed on the source or method of the information either. wasn t aware of where the information came fr
president trump it s believed in talking with the russians in oval office, was talking about an isis plot, what could be the biggest plot to take down a plane since 9/11. tonight, by sharing that information, are the lives of sources at greater risk, and what about our relationship with the ally who gave the white house that information in the first place. here s brian ross tonight. reporter: what s at risk tonight, according to current and former u.s. officials, is the life of a spy inside isis, placed there by israel, providing sensitive information about terror plots against america on the condition the u.s. keep the source secret. the real risk is not just this source, but future sources of information about plots against us. reporter: the current intelligence from inside isis involves an active plot to bring down a passenger jet en route to the u.s., with a bomb hidden in a laptop that the u.s. believes can get through airport screening machines undetected. the information i
they re carrying on their work. but make no mistake, a number of former fbi agents i talked with are extremely angry at the way comey was fired. david. pierre thomas with us tonight. pierre, thank you. all of this comes as the white house refuses to say whether the white house the president gave classified information to the russians. that headline broke last night as we came on. our team could hear the yelling behind the walls of the west wing. the president reportedly revealing classified information about an isis plot. that information coming from an u.s. ally who had not given permission to share it. tonight, did the president s reveal put any sources already in harm s way at greater risk? here s abc s chief white house correspondent jonathan karl. reporter: as president trump met with the president of turkey today, he was hounded with questions did you reveal classified intelligence information with the russians? mr. president, did you share classified intelligence inf
what they want to do the most is they want to have a large airplane blow up in flight. reporter: isis has already taken credit for blowing up a russian airliner two years ago, killing more than 200 people, claiming the bomb was hidden in a soft drink can. the white house national security adviser says that justifies president trump s disclosures to the russians. this was the context of the conversation in which it was wholly appropriate to share what the threat was as a basis for common action and coordination. reporter: but many in the counterterrorism community say what the president did was a mistake. russia is not part of the isis coalition. they are not our partner. and brian ross with us now. brian reported there that it s believed it was israel, our ally, who gave us that information. lot of people are pointing to the fact if this classified
reporter: but a little later, he touted his meeting with the russians as a success. we had a very, very successful meeting with the foreign minister of russia. our fight is against isis. reporter: at issue, what the president said when he met with the russian foreign minister and ambassador in the oval office last week. the washington post first reported that the president shared highly sensitive classified information about an isis plot to target civilian airplanes with laptop bombs secret information, abc news has learned, given to the united states by israeli intelligence. less than two hours after the story broke, the national security adviser emerged from the west wing to shoot it down. the story that came out tonight as reported is false. reporter: this morning, the president seemed to confirm he shared sensitive information with the russians, tweeting as president i wanted to share with russia, at an openly scheduled white house meeting, which i have the absolut