Trump’s actions scrutinized after Russian bounty reports
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s deference to Vladimir Putin is back under the microscope amid accusations that he ignored intelligence that Russia offered to pay Taliban militants to kill U.S. troops in Afghanistan.
Democrats returning from a classified briefing at the White House on Tuesday pledged to get to the bottom of the matter and questioned whether the president was unaware of the intelligence and why he hadn’t taken a harder line against Moscow.
“The president called this a hoax, publicly,” said Rep. Steny H. Hoyer, D-Md., the House majority leader. “Nothing in the briefing that we have just received led me to believe it is a hoax.”
Trump tweeted two days earlier that reports of Russian bounties could be “another fabricated Russia Hoax” and claimed that intelligence officials “did not find this info credible, and therefore did not report it to me.”
The president has said nothing critical of Moscow or indicated that he would take new steps to protect troops serving in Afghanistan, where he’s focused on withdrawing U.S. forces after nearly two decades of conflict.
The New York Times reported Monday that information about Russian bounties had been included in February in the presidential daily brief, a top secret summary of the nation’s intelligence. According to an Associated Press report, intelligence on the topic began circulating in the White House last year.
Joe Biden, the former vice president and Trump’s presumptive Democratic opponent in this year’s election, said it was “a dereliction of duty” if Trump refused to read his intelligence report or failed to take action if he was briefed on the issue.
“This president talks about cognitive capability. He doesn’t seem to be cognitively aware of what’s going on,” Biden said during an appearance in Wilmington, Delaware.
A senior U.S. official said Tuesday there was a strong circumstantial case that a Russian military intelligence unit was providing funds to Afghans with ties to the Taliban, ostensibly for bounties for killing American troops.
“The evidence isn’t ironclad, but then it never is,” the official told the Los Angeles Times. The intelligence about the bounties originated from interrogations of Taliban militants.
Afghan security forces, with assistance from the U.S., raided several houses in the northern city of Kunduz in March in an effort to capture two Afghans involved in the bounty effort, the official said. The pair had already fled the country, but more than a dozen others were arrested, added the official, who agreed to discuss the intelligence in return for anonymity.
It appeared that funds provided by Russia went to the two Afghans, but tracing the money has proved difficult, he said.
U.S. spies and analysts are reportedly examining whether Russian payments can be tied to the death of any U.S. troops, with the deaths of three Marines killed by a car bomb on April 8, 2019, being a main focus. Moscow has denied any role.
“I find it inexplicable in light of these very public allegations that the president hasn’t come before the country and assured the American people that he will get to the bottom of whether Russians are putting a bounty on the heads of American troops, and that he will do everything in his power to make sure that we protect American troops,” said Rep. Adam B. Schiff, D-Burbank, chair of the House Intelligence Committee.