White House denies Trump briefed on 'Russia Afghanistan assassination plot'
New York Times claims
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The White House has denied reports that Donald Trump ignored a warning from US intelligence that the Russian military had offered bounties to Taliban-linked militants in Afghanistan to kill American troops and other coalition forces.
The New York Times reported the claim on Friday, triggering a storm of accusations that the president had failed to protect US and allied troops, including those from Britain.
Citing officials briefed on the matter, the Times said the US determined months ago that a Russian military intelligence unit linked to assassination attempts in Europe had offered rewards for successful attacks last year.
Islamist militants, or armed criminal elements closely associated with them, are believed to have collected some bounty money, the newspaper said. The White House, the CIA and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence initially declined requests from Reuters for comment on the report.
On Saturday afternoon, the White House denied Mr Trump had been briefed on the matter, but did not dispute that US troops were being targetted, something likely to give the story further life.
“The United States receives thousands of intelligence reports a day and they are subject to strict scrutiny. While the White House does not routinely comment on alleged intelligence or internal deliberations, the CIA Director, National Security Advisor, and the Chief of Staff can all confirm that neither the President nor the Vice President were briefed on the alleged Russian bounty intelligence," press secretary Kayleigh Mcenany said in a statement.
"This does not speak to the merit of the alleged intelligence but to the inaccuracy of the New York Times story erroneously suggesting that President Trump was briefed on this matter.”
See below to see how the drama played out:
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Trump pounces on Biden misspeaking about number of coronavirus deaths
The president has tweeted twice today about former vice president Joe Biden misspeaking and say thing over 120 million people have died of Covid-19 — the real figure is 125,000.
The Biden War Room tweeted back asking: "Which is a bigger scandal? Joe Biden misspeaking and immediately correcting himself? Or Donald Trump ignoring the deaths of 120,000 Americans while having disbanded the White House pandemic response team and continuing to push against measures that save lives?"
Republican group The Lincoln Project replied to the president: "Don't you have the multiple crises you've caused to deal with?"
Mr Biden did indeed correct himself and cited the real figure.
Earlier today, we reported on claims in the New York Times that said the Trump administration had learned that Russia had paid bounties to the Taliban to kill US and coalition troops in Afghanistan, but not acted
Well, the White House has just issued this statement:
“The United States receives thousands of intelligence reports a day and they are subject to strict scrutiny. While the White House does not routinely comment on alleged intelligence or internal deliberations, the CIA Director, National Security Advisor, and the Chief of Staff can all confirm that neither the President nor the Vice President were briefed on the alleged Russian bounty intelligence. This does not speak to the merit of the alleged intelligence but to the inaccuracy of the New York Times story erroneously suggesting that President Trump was briefed on this matter.”
It is a very strange statement, because while it claims the president has not been informed of of the issue it does not dispute the veracity of the intelligence. Which beggars the question, if the president was not informed of this - why not?
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