Trump Claims He Wasn’t Informed of Russian Bounties on U.S Troops Because Intel Wasn’t Credible
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President Donald Trump claimed that he wasn’t briefed on Russia’s secret bounty offers to the Taliban because the information on the matter wasn’t credible enough to be reported to him.
“Intel just reported to me that they did not find this info credible, and therefore did not report it to me or Vice President Pence,” Trump said on Sunday night. “Possibly another fabricated Russia Hoax, maybe by the Fake News New York Times, wanting to make Republicans look bad!!!”
Intel just reported to me that they did not find this info credible, and therefore did not report it to me or @VP. Possibly another fabricated Russia Hoax, maybe by the Fake News @nytimesbooks, wanting to make Republicans look bad!!! https://t.co/cowOmP7T1S
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 29, 2020
Trump’s tweet is a continuation of his latest feud with The New York Times, this time over their report saying Russian military intelligence offered secret bounties to Taliban militias for the deaths of U.S. soldiers. The report also claims that Trump was informed of the bounties as early as March, but he has not confronted Russia about it nor taken any action against them.
Multiple Trump administration officials have denied that the bounty report was shown to Trump during one of his presidential daily briefings. This has led to subsequent questions about whether Trump was told about this, what is the veracity of the accusations against Russia, and why wasn’t Trump briefed about this if its true he was not.
