- On Friday last week, a New York Times scoop revealed that Russian military intelligence has been offering bounties to Taliban forces for the killing of American and British troops in Afghanistan. [NYT / Charlie Savage, Eric Schmitt, and Michael Schwirtz]
- Now, new reporting suggests that President Donald Trump knew as early as spring 2019 that Russia was placing those bounties. In addition to the President’s Daily Brief, then-National Security Adviser John Bolton briefed Trump directly on the assessment in March last year. [AP / James LaPorta]
- It’s unclear how many deaths can be directly tied to the bounties, but intelligence suggests that “several” US service members were killed as a result. In total, 16 Americans died from “hostile gunfire or improvised bombs” last year, as well as two so far in 2020. [Washington Post / Ellen Nakashima, Karen DeYoung, Missy Ryan, and John Hudson]
- On Tuesday, a subsequent New York Times report found that US intelligence intercepted financial transfer data showing GRU payments to a Taliban-linked account. The transfers are believed to be connected to the bounty program. [NYT / Charlie Savage, Mujib Mashal, Rukmini Callimachi, Eric Schmitt, and Adam Goldman]
- The intelligence was also considered credible enough that it prompted a National Security Council meeting to determine possible responses to the bounties, though White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany insisted Monday that there is “no consensus” on its veracity. [CNN / Barbara Starr and Paul LeBlanc]
- As the Daily Beast reported Monday, the exact timeline for when the president might have been briefed, and on what, remains somewhat unclear, in part because Trump “has little patience for intelligence briefings, especially when the news isn’t good for him.” [The Daily Beast / Erin Banco and Asawin Suebsaeng]
- On Sunday, Trump denied the story on Twitter, though multiple credible reports contrary to his tweet have since emerged. “Intel just reported to me that they did not find this info credible, and therefore did not report it to me or @VP,” he wrote, describing the story as a “fabricated Russia Hoax.” [Twitter / Donald Trump]
- In reality, it's vanishingly unlikely that Trump was never briefed. That leaves two options, as Vox's Zack Beauchamp explains: Either Trump was briefed and was so genuinely disinterested that it never registered, or he's deliberately lying to the American public. In any case, it's good news for Russia. [Vox / Zack Beauchamp]
- Congress has reacted to the story with alarm, with members of both parties calling for more information. A small group of House Republicans — no Democrats were included at the time — received a briefing Monday. [NPR / Philip Ewing]
- On Tuesday, select House Democrats were also briefed by the White House — but House Intelligence Committee chair Adam Schiff told reporters that “the right people to give the briefing really were not in the room.” [Politico / Heather Caygle, Kyle Cheney, and Sarah Ferris]
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