Russia Offered Bounties To Taliban To Kill U.S. Troops, Trump Denies Being Told By U.S. Intelligence

President Donald Trump denied being briefed by U.S. intelligence that Russia had paid Taliban linked militants to kill U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan, a bombshell news that the The New York Times first reported.

The newspaper revealed on Friday that the White House officials discussed the problem in late March when they first got the news from the intelligence. However, Trump has not taken any action on the information.

Twenty U.S. soldiers were reportedly killed in Afghanistan last year. It’s not clear yet if these casualties were due to the bounties Russians had offered.

After waiting the whole weekend, Trump finally responded via Twitter, calling the report a “fake news.”

“Nobody briefed or told me, VP [Mike] Pence, or Chief of Staff [Mark Meadows] about the so-called attacks on our troops in Afghanistan by Russians, as reported through an “anonymous source” by the Fake News [The New York Times]. Everybody is denying it & there have not been many attacks on us,” Trump tweeted. 

On Twitter, Trump further criticized the report for not having the clear source and somehow used it to attack the former Vice President Joe Biden.

“Nobody’s been tougher on Russia than the Trump Administration. With Corrupt Joe Biden & Obama, Russia had a field day, taking over important parts of Ukraine – Where’s Hunter? Probably just another phony Times hit job, just like their failed Russia Hoax. Who is their source?” Trump tweeted.

Article by Dongyoon Shin