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Trump received Presidential Daily Briefing on Russian bounty plot: report

Published on June 29, 2020 By Matthew Chapman

On Monday, CNN reported that President Donald Trump received a presidential daily briefing in the spring including the intelligence assessment that Russia was putting bounties on U.S. troops in Afghanistan.

“That assessment, the source said, was backed up by ‘several pieces of information’ that supported the view that there was an effort by the Russian intelligence unit — the GRU — to pay bounties to kill US soldiers, including interrogation of Taliban detainees and electronic eavesdropping,” reported Barbara Starr. “The source said there was some other information that did not corroborate this view but said, nonetheless, ‘This was a big deal. When it’s about US troops you go after it 100%, with everything you got.'”

This report contradicts the claim by the White House that the president was not made aware of this intelligence — a claim that even Republicans have demanded clarification on.

Pentagon officials were ‘pounding on the door’ to get Trump to do something about Russia’s assassination bounty: WaPo’s Ignatius

Published June 29, 2020 By Tom Boggioni

Appearing on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” longtime political columnist David Ignatius said that his own follow-up on the New York Times’ explosive report that Donald Trump’s administration was well aware that the Russians were offering a bounty for the death of U.S. military members revealed that Pentagon officials have been “pounding on the door” and trying to get Donald Trump to do something about it.

Speaking with host Joe Scarborough, Ignatius said he was stunned by the report from the Times and started looking into the details himself for confirmation.

“Based on my reporting trying to confirm the New York Times’ excellent story it’s clear in late March you had senior U.S commanders, senior civilian intelligence officials, in effect pounding on the door of the White House saying we need to do something about this, we need to come to a conclusion about what damage the Russian program is doing, we need to reassess our programs in Afghanistan and they couldn’t get an answer,” he reported. “To this day there’s not an answer, there’s not a real response. Was this because the president was briefed and did nothing or because he wasn’t briefed because people were afraid to give him bad news and kept it to themselves? I don’t know.”

“But it almost doesn’t matter in terms of the breakdown in terms of the way the government is supposed to work,” he continued. “In some ways, it’s almost worse the department didn’t tell him, ‘Mr. President while you’re encouraging Russia to rejoin the G8, we should mention Russia is putting bounties on the heads of American soldiers.’ If they didn’t tell him that, it’s a stunner.”

“I think people are steamed up about it, there’s nothing that would make American commanders angrier other than the idea that their soldiers had targets on their back because of the actions of somebody that the president was still speaking of as a prospective ally,” he added.

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Appearing on MSNBC on Monday morning, former Republican National Committee head Michael Steele claimed he had no doubt that Donald Trump was aware that Russia was paying out bounties for the killings of U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan.

Speaking with “Morning Joe” hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski, the former RNC head was asked if Donald Trump thinks Americans are “stupid” for telling them he was out of the loop on the intelligence reports.

“I will take up that challenge and say they did brief him,” Steele replied. “I do not believe that something as important and severe as this was left untold to the president of the United States.”

“What I think is disturbing is his reaction to it once he was told — the fact that there has been nothing done,” he continued. “There has been no rebuke officially from the United States and the fact that the White House, even over the course of the president’s tweets still has not denied the underlying intelligence that this is, in fact, what happened and this is, in fact, what we do know and the reality is.”

“This is a bounty placed on the heads of American soldiers, you are the commander in chief, alright?” he continued. “So this isn’t about politics. This is about what you do as a leader of men and women in uniform who now find out that you are okay with a bounty on their head by your — by our adversary. So this is what he’s going to have to account for — he can’t spin this out. There may be some Republicans who will run to his defense, that will be curious to watch.”