Mike Pompeo Grilled About Russian Bounties, Says He’s Raised ‘All Threats’ with Russian Counterpart
Sen. Bob Menendez grilled Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on whether he’s discussed reports of Russian bounties on American troops with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.
“Have you raised concerns with Russia, and its Foreign Minister Lavrov, with respect to Russia reportedly placing bounties on the heads of service members in Afghanistan?” asked Menendez at a Senate hearing Thursday, to which Pompeo replied, “I want to be very careful about what’s public record and what’s intelligence based, but yes, I can assure you and the American people each time I’ve spoken with Foreign Minister Lavrov I’ve raised all of the issues that put any American interests at risk.”
“Whether that’s our soldiers on the ground in Syria, soldiers on the ground in Afghanistan, the activities that were taking place in Libya, the actions in Ukraine, each and every one of these that potentially threaten American interests are things that I raised in my conversations with Foreign Minister Lavrov and I speak with him with some frequency,” Pompeo declared.
Menendez replied, “I appreciate that answer. I asked you specifically, have you raised — there are public reports, very well documented — that the Russians were supposedly paying bounties to kill our service members. Have you raised that issue with Foreign Minister Lavrov?”
Pompeo said, “Senator, I’m going to be more careful than you’re being with respect to the intelligence. I’m going to tell you that, make no mistake about it, the proper people have been aware of every threat to our soldiers on the ground in Afghanistan, whether that was General Miller, or my team at the embassy there in Kabul.”
“Any time there was a tactical threat on the lives or the health or the safety or the security or our assets in place, we have raised this with our Russian counterparts, not only at my level, but Ambassador Sullivan, and every one of our team that interacts with the Russians,” he concluded. “We’ve made very clear our expectations.”
In an interview with Axios this week, President Donald Trump revealed he did not bring up the bounty reports during a phone call with President Vladimir Putin, commenting, “Many people are calling it fake news.”
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