White House says 'dissenting opinions' on intelligence that Russia paid bounties to kill American troops

WASHINGTON — White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany told reporters Monday that it was a matter of debate within the U.S. intelligence community on allegations that a Russian military intelligence unit had paid bounties to militants in Afghanistan to attack American troops in Afghanistan, and, as a result, President Trump and Vice President Mike Pence were not briefed on the matter.

“There was not a consensus among the intelligence community. In fact, there were dissenting opinions,” McEnany said. “It would not be elevated to the president until it was verified.”

The allegations that bounties were paid by the Russians first surfaced in a New York Times article published Friday. The newspaper reported that U.S. officials concluded the bounties were paid “months ago” based “at least in part on interrogations of captured Afghan militants and criminals.” According to the Times, Trump was briefed about the bounties, which an arm of Russia’s military intelligence agency, the GRU, allegedly offered to Taliban-linked fighters.

In a follow-up article published on Sunday, the Times reported that intelligence officials and special operations officers believed “at least one U.S. troop death was the result of the bounties.” Suspicions were raised after a large quantity of U.S. cash was discovered during a raid on a Taliban outpost.

White House officials denied the paper’s claim that the president was briefed about the accusations, as did Trump himself. “Intel just reported to me that they did not find this info credible, and therefore did not report it to me” or the vice president, Trump tweeted on Sunday night.

During the briefing, McEnany was repeatedly pressed on whether the president was told about the matter, if his comment meant he had been briefed since reports about the alleged bounties were published, and if the issue was previously included in the presidential daily briefing, which contains high-level intelligence, including some reports that are not fully verified. The press secretary said she wouldn’t comment “on the president’s private correspondence” beyond saying that he was not briefed prior to the initial article.

“While the White House does not routinely comment on alleged intelligence or internal deliberations, the CIA director, ... national security adviser, and the chief of staff can all confirm that neither the president nor the vice president were briefed on the alleged Russian bounty intelligence,” McEnany said.

She confirmed that a bipartisan group of eight members from congressional committees responsible for oversight on the issue were briefed by the White House about the allegations on Monday.