US President Donald Trump has denied being briefed by US intelligence officials on Russian plan to secretly offer bounties to Taliban-linked militants to kill American troops in Afghanistan. He said in a Twitter post on Sunday night that the claims weren’t reported to him as they weren’t considered credible and alleged the fake news media. Trump administration was due to inform US Congress on the matter on Monday that President Trump had been made aware of the Taliban deal but hadn’t acted on it. Both The Associated Press and The New York Times reported that US intelligence personnel informed the president some months ago regarding Russian actions in Afghanistan.
It is noteworthy that The Times reported, a senior Trump administration personnel and members of the National Security Council were also said to have discussed the threat for some months. Those claims were denied on Sunday when Trump said neither he nor vice president Mike Pence was informed about the bounties placed on American soldiers in Afghanistan. President wrote, “Intel just reported to me that they did not find this info credible, and therefore did not report it to me or Mike Pence. Those were possibly another fabricated Russia Hoax, maybe by the Fake News New York Times Books, wanting to make Republicans look bad!!!”
Point to be noted that several US military sources informed The Washington Post that Taliban-linked militants were believed to have killed several Americans and other coalition forces members with the Russian deal in mind. Russian authorities also said that President Vladimir Putin hadn’t discussed the matter with Trump. American legislators have now called on the White House to explain whatever or not it knew about Russian actions. US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said, “This is as bad as it gets. The president will not confront the Russians on this score. This is totally outrageous. You would think that the minute he heard of this the president would want to know more instead of denying anything”.