Democrats Demand Briefing on Report of Russian ‘Bounties’

(Bloomberg) -- The two top Democrats in Congress are demanding that intelligence officials brief lawmakers on reports that Russian military intelligence offered bounties for killing U.S. service members to Afghan militants and whether President Donald Trump was given the information.

“The questions that arise are: Was the president briefed, and if not, why not, and why was Congress not briefed,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi wrote on Monday to Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe and Central Intelligence Agency Director Gina Haspel seeking a briefing for all House members. “Congress needs to know what the intelligence community knows about this significant threat to American troops and our allies and what options are available to hold Russia accountable.”

Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said on Twitter that Ratcliffe and Haspel should brief all senators as well.

In the letter, Pelosi notes reports that that the White House National Security Council and other key administration officials were aware of this intelligence in late March and that the president was briefed, but no action has been taken.

“The president now denies being briefed, but the administration has not denied the existence of the intelligence,” Pelosi wrote. She labeled the administration’s response as “disturbing silence and inaction” that “endanger the lives of our troops and our coalition partners.”

Trump on Sunday tweeted that U.S. intelligence officials told him a report that the Russian government paid bounties for American and allied troops to be killed in Afghanistan wasn’t credible and so he wasn’t told about it.

Kayleigh McEnany, the White House press secretary, dismissed Pelosi’s earlier statements about the New York Times report, which has been duplicated by other news organizations, as “just dead wrong.”

McEnany is scheduled to hold a public briefing at 1 p.m. Washington time Monday and suggested the administration would be briefing lawmakers.

“It’ll clear up a lot when members of Congress are briefed today, but it is truly egregious when you have anonymous sources spewing out this information on the pages of the New York Times and wrongly giving them false information,” she said.

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