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Updated July 2nd, 2020 at 10:50 IST

WH defends response on Russia bounty assessment

​​​​​​​Criticized for inaction over the Trump administration's response to intelligence assessments that Russia offered bounties for killing U.S. troops in Afghanistan, White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said President Donald Trump had faith in his National Security adviser and the intelligence community over the issue.

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Criticized for inaction over the Trump administration's response to intelligence assessments that Russia offered bounties for killing U.S. troops in Afghanistan, White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said President Donald Trump had faith in his National Security adviser and the intelligence community over the issue.

"The president's believes that and has great faith in (National Security Adviser) Ambassador (Robert) O'Brien and the others who made the decision that this shouldn't be risen to his desk."

McEnany pointed for the first time Wednesday to an individual who she said made the decision not to brief Trump, identifying the person as a female CIA officer with more than 30 years of experience.

“The national security adviser agreed with that decision," McEnany said. "She’s an excellent officer and does great work. They made the decision not to brief it up, it was the right decision to make, and at this moment as I speak to you it is still unverified.”

Trump remained defensive about the intelligence in early morning tweets, dismissing stories about it as “Fake News” made up to “damage me and the Republican Party.”

He has called the assessments a “hoax” and insisted anew he hadn't been briefed on them because the intelligence didn't rise to his level.

However, National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien said both the CIA and Pentagon did pursue the leads and briefed international allies.

Trump is coming under increasing pressure from lawmakers of both parties  to provide more answers about the intelligence and the U.S. response or lack of one. Democrats who were briefed at the White House on Tuesday suggested he was bowing to Russian President Vladimir Putin at the risk of U.S. soldiers’ lives.

The president has repeatedly said he wasn’t briefed on the assessments that Russia offered bounties because there wasn’t corroborating evidence. Those assessments were first reported by The New York Times, then confirmed to The Associated Press by American intelligence officials and others with knowledge of the matter.

Intelligence officials, including CIA Director Gina Haspel and Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe, will brief the so-called Gang of 8 - Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the top Republicans and Democrats on the two intelligence committees - in a classified meeting on Capitol Hill Thursday morning.

The intelligence community has been investigating an April 2019 attack on an American convoy that killed three U.S. Marines when a car rigged with explosives detonated near their armored vehicles as they traveled back to Bagram Airfield, the largest U.S. military installation in Afghanistan, officials told the AP.

Three other U.S. service members were wounded in the attack, along with an Afghan contractor. The Taliban claimed responsibility. The officials the AP spoke to also said they were looking closely at insider attacks from 2019 to determine if they were linked to Russian bounties.

 

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Published July 2nd, 2020 at 10:50 IST

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