Members of Indiana’s congressional delegation representing Columbus have issued responses to reports that President Donald Trump either ignored, or was unaware of, a Russian plot to award a bounty to kill U.S. and coalition troops in Afghanistan.
The reports involve allegations that Russia was secretly offering bounties to Taliban-linked militants for killing American troops in Afghanistan and that top officials at the White House were aware of the plot in early 2019. The allegations are the assessment was included in at least one of Trump’s written daily intelligence briefings, The Associated Press reported.
The intelligence assessments were first reported by The New York Times, then confirmed to The Associated Press by American intelligence officials and others with knowledge of the matter.
Trump has called the “Russian bounty story” a “hoax.”
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On Monday, Sen. Todd Young, R-Indiana, sent Trump a letter “urging a strong and immediate response,” to the “disturbing” reports, but struck a softer tone Tuesday after reviewing intelligence materials at the White House, characterizing the intelligence as “unverified and inconclusive” and the Trump administration’s response as “active and appropriate.”
“This administration, and this president, has drawn on all available intelligence to keep our men and women in uniform safe,” Young said in a statement Tuesday.
Sen. Mike Braun, R-Indiana, called the reports of Russian bounties “very disturbing” and claimed that “nobody has been tougher on Russia and (Russian President) Vladimir Putin than President Donald Trump.”
“The reports of targeted killing of Americans by Russia is very disturbing,” Braun said in a statement. “If true, we must react accordingly. In the coming days, Congress will be briefed on this situation and I have no doubt that President Trump will continue to hold Russia accountable.”
Rep. Greg Pence, R-Indiana, did not respond to questions about his assessment of the Trump administration’s response to the intelligence reports or if he had been briefed on the matter as part of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. His spokeswoman said he had not been briefed by the White House.
In a statement, Pence’s communications director, Milly Lothian, blamed the news media for “using American troops as pawns” and running what she described as “unverified” reports.
“As a Marine, Congressman Pence is no stranger to the dangers our brave men and women serving in our armed forces experience on a daily basis,” she said. “Unfortunately, it’s now becoming routine for publications like the (New York) Times and Washington Post to run with unverified reports from anonymous sources that turn out to be false or completely misleading. Using American troops as pawns in the mainstream media’s unquenchable desire to trash President Trump is dangerous and disgusting.”
Trump has come under increasing pressure to respond to the allegations, with Democrats demanding answers and accusing the president of bowing to Putin at the risk of U.S. soldiers’ lives, the The Associated Press reported.
Frustrated House Democrats returning from a briefing at the White House Tuesday said they learned nothing new about American intelligence assessments that suggested Russia was making overtures to militants as the U.S. and the Taliban held talks to end the conflict in Afghanistan, according to the The Associated Press. Senate Republicans who attended a separate briefing largely defended the president, arguing along with the White House that the intelligence was unverified.
White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said Tuesday that Trump had been briefed on the intelligence, a day after saying he hadn’t because it had not been verified, the The Associated Press reported. McEnany said that there were still reservations within the intelligence community on the veracity of the allegations.
The Trump administration stepped up its defense of its response to intelligence assessments that suggested Russia had offered bounties for killing U.S. troops in Afghanistan, with the president’s national security adviser saying he had prepared a list of retaliatory options if the intelligence had been corroborated.
Trump continued to play down the assessments and insist he wasn’t briefed on the matter because the intelligence didn’t rise to his level. However, National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien said both the CIA and Pentagon did pursue the lead and briefed international allies.
“We had options ready to go,” O’Brien said on “Fox and Friends.” “It may be impossible to get to the bottom of it.”
At a State Department news conference, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the situation was handled “incredibly well” to ensure the safety of U.S. troops. “We took this seriously, we handled it appropriately,” Pompeo said, without giving additional details. He said the administration receives intelligence about threats to Americans “every single day” and that each is addressed.
While Russian meddling in Afghanistan isn’t new, officials said Russian operatives became more aggressive in their desire to contract with the Taliban and members of the Haqqani Network, a militant group aligned with the Taliban in Afghanistan and designated a foreign terrorist organization in 2012, according to wire reports.
The intelligence community has been investigating an April 2019 attack on an American convoy that killed three U.S. Marines after a car rigged with explosives detonated near their armored vehicles as they traveled back to Bagram Airfield, the largest U.S. military installation in Afghanistan, officials told the AP.
Three other U.S. service members were wounded in the attack, along with an Afghan contractor. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack on Twitter. The officials the AP spoke to also said they were looking closely at insider attacks — sometimes called “green-on-blue” incidents — from 2019 to determine if they are also linked to Russian bounties.
