OnPolitics: We're talking about Russia again

Friday, July 3

President Donald Trump speaks during a news briefing at the White House, Thursday, July 2, 2020, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Yup, Russia.

President Donald Trump spent another week pushing back against headlines related to Russia, but this time, it wasn't about the 2016 election.

Late last week, the New York Times reported that a Russian unit had secretly offered rewards to Taliban-lined militants for killing American troops and other coalition forces in Afghanistan.

The president on Sunday denied that he knew about an intelligence report detailing the Russia bounties, saying on Twitter than neither he nor Vice President Mike Pence had been briefed about it.

"Nobody briefed or told me, @VP Pence, or Chief of Staff @MarkMeadows about the so-called attacks on our troops in Afghanistan by Russians, as reported through an 'anonymous source' by the Fake News @nytimes," Trump wrote.

But by Monday, members of both parties in Congress were asking for more information, asking why Trump was not briefed on the intelligence assessment and what steps the U.S. can take to punish Moscow for targeting American troops.

White House spokeswoman Kayleigh McEnany said later that day that Trump was not "personally briefed" on the intelligence but would not say whether that explosive information was relayed to Trump in his daily written intelligence briefing.

"There is no consensus within the intelligence community on these allegations and in effect there are dissenting opinions from some in the intelligence community with regards to the veracity of what's being reported," McEnany said at a briefing with reporters.

Questions continued through the week as to whether the information was included in the president's daily intelligence brief, also called the PDB.

According to USA TODAY reporters Deirdre Shesgreen and David Jackson, that document is "a highly classified dossier outlining the most urgent and credible national security threats of the day. ...

Officials declined to say whether Trump read about that allegation in the PDB, or how closely he reads the documents in general. They did say there are government officials who do not believe there is enough evidence to prove that Russia is actually paying bounties. They did not specify who those officials are or how many there are."

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who is part of the "Gang of Eight" congressional leaders who receive intelligence reports, said she had not been briefed on the intelligence about the Russian bounty, and called for an intelligence report on the matter to be submitted to Congress.

"What does that say about the concern that those who briefed the president have about not going anywhere near the Russia issue with this president?" she asked.

Thanks, as always, for reading. We'll see you next week. - Annah Aschbrenner

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