According to a classified American intelligence assessment, a Russian spy unit paid members of the Taliban to conduct lethal attacks on U.S. and other NATO troops, people familiar with the assessment said.
Photo: Alejandro Licea/U.S. Army/ReutersPresident Trump said late Sunday that intelligence officials told him they didn’t find information about Russians offering a bounty to Afghan militants who attacked U.S. troops sufficiently credible to brief him or Vice President Mike Pence.
“Intel just reported to me that they did not find this info credible, and therefore did not report it to me” or Mr. Pence, he wrote in a late-night post on Twitter.
According to a classified American intelligence assessment, a Russian spy unit paid members of Afghanistan’s Taliban movement to conduct lethal attacks on U.S. and other North Atlantic Treaty Organization troops in Afghanistan, people familiar with the assessment said.
Mr. Trump said earlier Sunday that neither he nor top members of his administration had been briefed on the intelligence, and he played down the seriousness of the allegation.
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.) expressed skepticism about the administration’s response to reports of the alleged bounties, saying she was outraged to learn about the assessment and called for the Trump administration to hold Russia accountable.
According to a classified American intelligence assessment, a Russian spy unit paid members of Afghanistan’s Taliban movement to conduct lethal attacks on U.S. and other North Atlantic Treaty Organization troops in Afghanistan, people familiar with the assessment said.
“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,” Mr. Trump tweeted. “Everybody is denying it & there have not been many attacks on us. Nobody’s been tougher on Russia than the Trump Administration. With Corrupt Joe Biden & Obama, Russia had a field day, taking over important parts of Ukraine - Where’s Hunter? Probably just another phony Times hit job, just like their failed Russia Hoax. Who is their ‘source’?”
In a second tweet Sunday, President Trump wrote that the New York Times, which first reported on the intelligence assessment, should reveal its unnamed sources. “Bet they can’t do it, this ‘person’ probably does not even exist!” the president wrote on Twitter.
And in his tweet late Sunday night, the president said the matter was “possibly another fabricated Russia hoax” by the news media.
The Russian Foreign Ministry, cited by state news agency TASS, has called the reports “information fakes” and propaganda. The Russian embassy in the U.S. tweeted that the news reports have led to direct threats to the life of employees of the embassies in Washington and London.
Mrs. Pelosi said Sunday that top members of the House and Senate, known as the Gang of Eight, weren’t briefed on the American intelligence assessment.
“We should have been,” Mrs. Pelosi said on ABC’s “This Week.”
The White House didn’t respond to a request for comment about Mrs. Pelosi’s remarks.
The intelligence assessment regarding Russia’s actions in Afghanistan was delivered to the White House earlier this spring, and until recently had been known only to a handful of officials, according to people familiar with the assessment.
During her appearance on “This Week,” Mrs. Pelosi said the Trump administration should have looked further into the assessment and punished Russia for threatening U.S. forces. She alleged the president might not have done so because the Russians might have something on the president “politically, personally, financially or whatever it is.”
“This is as bad as it gets and yet the president will not confront the Russians,” Mrs. Pelosi said. “This is totally outrageous. You would think that the minute the president heard of it he would want to know more instead of denying that he knew anything.”
In a tweet, Rep. Liz Cheney, (R., Wyo.), said if the reports were true, the White House must answer: “Why weren’t the president or vice president briefed? Was the info in the PDD?” referring to the president’s daily intelligence brief. She added: “What has been done in response to protect our forces & hold Putin accountable?”
In a statement released Saturday, White House spokeswoman Kayleigh McEnany said neither President Trump nor Vice President Mike Pence had been briefed on the allegations.
In addition to Ms. McEnany’s statement, Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe said in a written statement on Saturday that he had “confirmed that neither the President nor the Vice President were ever briefed on any intelligence alleged by the New York Times in its reporting yesterday.” Mr. Ratcliffe didn’t refute reports about the intelligence assessment.
There are roughly 8,600 troops currently serving in Afghanistan.
Write to Nancy A. Youssef at nancy.youssef@wsj.com
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