Russian Bounties On US Troops: What Did Trump Know, And When?

Russian Bounties On US Troops: What Did Trump Know, And When?

CNN reports the White House had intelligence in early 2019 indicating Russian actors were offering bounties to kill US soldiers in Afghanistan.

That's more than a year before President Donald Trump claimed he was not briefed on the same threat.

The White House has repeatedly denied Trump had been "personally briefed" on similar intelligence this year, claiming the intel "wasn't verified." But a US official familiar with the matter said intelligence about the Russian bounties was in the President's Daily Briefing (PDB) in the spring of 2020.

In 2019, the reports were passed to top officials at the National Security Council, including former national security adviser John Bolton.

Bolton would have ultimately decided whether or not to brief the President on the matter.

Multiple sources say that Bolton is a voracious consumer of intelligence.