Trump Reportedly Revealed Classified Intel to Russian Officials and More in Politics Today

It’s difficult to stay up-to-date on what’s happening in this country and to break through the clutter, so we’re here to make it easier. Here’s what we at Countable are reading today:

1. "Trump revealed highly classified information to Russian foreign minister and ambassador"

President Trump revealed highly classified information to the Russian foreign minister and ambassador in a White House meeting last week, according to current and former U.S. officials, who said Trump’s disclosures jeopardized a critical source of intelligence on the Islamic State.

The information the president relayed had been provided by a U.S. partner through an intelligence-sharing arrangement considered so sensitive that details have been withheld from allies and tightly restricted even within the U.S. government, officials said.

Read more at The Washington Post.

2. "U.S. accuses Syria of killing thousands, burning bodies in crematorium"

The U.S. is accusing Bashar al-Assad's regime in Syria of killing thousands of people from 2011 to 2015 and using a crematorium to dispose of their bodies. While Assad allies Russia and Iran may not have had anything to do with the crematorium, they are complicit in the brutal dictator's many other atrocities, according to the U.S.

The Trump administration says the regime has killed as many as 50 people a day at the Saydnaya prison complex in that period, and beginning in 2013, it turned a building on the compound into a crematorium.

Read more at ABC News.

3. "Supreme Court declines to hear challenge to ruling striking down NC voter ID law"

The Supreme Court is letting stand a lower court opinion from last summer that struck down North Carolina's voter ID law.

The law was challenged by civil rights groups and the Obama administration, which argued that the law's photo ID requirement had a disparate impact on minority voters.

Read more at CNN.

4. "Obama: Not bombing Syria ‘required the most political courage’"

Barack Obama defended his decision not to bomb Syria as president in an interview published Monday, casting his controversial decision as an act that "required the most political courage."

Obama spoke with Jack Schlossberg last week before accepting a John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage award. Schlossberg, Kennedy’s grandson and a member of the award committee, released a transcript of their conversation in a Medium post on Monday.

Read more at Politico.

5. "Dem rep calls for Trump’s impeachment"

Rep. Al Green (D-Texas) called Monday for President Trump to be impeached following the firing last week of FBI Director James Comey.

In a statement released Monday, Green said Trump is not "above the law."

"He has committed an impeachable act and must be charged. To do otherwise would cause some Americans to lose respect for, and obedience to, our societal norms," he said in a statement.

Read more at The Hill.

— Eric Revell

(Photo Credit: MFA Russia via Flickr / Public Domain)

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