CIA Officer Made Decision Not to Brief Trump on Russia Bounty Claims - White House Adviser

WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 01st July, 2020) US National Security Adviser Robert O'Brien told reporters on Wednesday that a senior CIA officer was the person who decided not to brief President Donald Trump about allegations Russia put bounties on American troops in Afghanistan.

"The person who decided early on whether the President should be briefed on this in the intelligence briefing was a senior career civil servant, [a] CIA officer," O'Brien said. "She made this decision because she did not have confidence in the intelligence."

Trump's adviser expressed confidence that this decision was right.

On Friday, the New York Times ran an article citing unnamed intelligence officials as saying that President Donald Trump had been presented with an intelligence report claiming Russia could have paid bounties to Taliban-linked militants to assassinate US troops in Afghanistan.

Trump said that neither he nor Vice President Mike Pence received a briefing on the issue because the US intelligence community said the allegations were not verified or substantiated. Trump called the article another attempt at a Russia hoax to make Republicans look bad in an election year.

US Congressman Adam Schiff, who was briefed on the intelligence Tuesday, said one of the US spy agencies had a dissenting view and evidence that disputed the allegations.

Russian officials have denied the allegations as false and characterized them as being part of the internal political infighting in the United States.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday that the Russian and US governments have not been in contact regarding the US corporate media allegations.