In the midst of the issue about Russia secretly offering bounties to the Taliban back in 2019, top officials in the White House said that they are aware about the matter. However, President Donald Tump was not informed.
Bounty on the American troops
According to the officials who knew about the intelligence, the assessment was included in President Donald Trump's daily intelligence briefings. The former national security adviser, John Bolton, allegedly told President Trump about the matter back in March of 2019.
However, the White House did not respond to this claim and refused to answer questions regarding Trump's awareness of Russia's bounties. The White House insisted that President Trump was not informed of the matter and that he still has no idea about it.
On June 29, Bolton refused to comment on the issue when he was asked by the Associated Press if he had briefed Trump about the intelligence last year.
On June 28, he told NBC's "Meet the Press" that President Trump was claiming ignorance of Russia's provocations just to justify the lack of response of his administration. The revelations cast doubt on the efforts of the White House to distance President Trump's name from the Russian intelligence assessments.
The Associated Press reported on June 28 that concerns about the bounties that Russian implemented were included in a written presidential daily briefing a few months ago and that Robert O'Brien, the current national security adviser, had told Trump about it. But O'Brien denied that he did.
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On the evening of June 29, O'Brien said that while the intelligence assessments have not been verified, the Trump administration has been preparing to act in case it does happen.
The Trump administration and Russia
Questions were raised when the public found out that the Trump administration was aware of the bounties that Russian has set for the killing of American soldiers. People on social media are now asking why the president did not take any swift action against Russia since the matter is putting the lives of American soldiers at risk.
Trump has tried for the past three years as president to improve the US relations to Russia and to befriend Russian President Vladimir Putin. One example is him insisting that Russia should be put back in the G7 after being kicked out.
Officials also said that they did not consider the intelligence assessments last year to be urgent, given that Russian meddling in Afghanistan is not new. The officials who said that Bolton did brief Trump about the matter said that Bolton's briefing did not contain any actionable intelligence.
This means that the information was not enough for the intelligence community to form a strategic plan or response. But the classified assessment of Russian bounties was the main purpose of the meeting.
The intelligence that surfaced indicated that Russian operatives had become more aggressive in their desire to contract with the members of the Haggani Network and the Taliban.
The National Security Council and the undersecretary of defense for intelligence held meetings regarding the issue. The Pentagon did not comment on the matter and the NSC did not respond to the questions bout the meetings.
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