WASHINGTON • President Donald Trump was not verbally briefed on a reported Russian effort to pay the Taleban to kill US soldiers in Afghanistan because the allegations were not corroborated at the time, national security adviser Robert O'Brien said yesterday.
But he declined to say whether the intelligence, which US ally Britain has said it was aware of, had been included in a written presidential briefing earlier this year.
"The President's career CIA briefer decided not to brief him because it was unverified intelligence," Mr O'Brien said on Fox News.
Mr Trump has faced a barrage of criticism following New York Times reports that a Russian military intelligence unit had offered bounties for United States and allied soldiers and that the President had received a written briefing on the matter in February.
After Mr Trump initially said he was not briefed on the matter, the White House said he was not "personally" briefed but did not address whether he had received a written report or read it, and why he had not responded more aggressively if so.
Mr O'Brien told reporters later that Mr Trump has now been briefed on the matter.
"The President's been fully briefed," he said. "We don't get into written classified documents."
Mr Trump has tried to deflect criticism by saying the intelligence was not conclusive enough to be brought to his attention, and by calling news reports "fake news".
Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden on Tuesday criticised Mr Trump, saying his actions were a "dereliction of duty". Mr Biden said lawmakers from both parties should "demand the facts" on the claims. He was considering asking for a classified intelligence briefing on the matter, he added.
"The idea that somehow he didn't know or isn't being briefed, it is a dereliction of duty if that is the case... If he was briefed and nothing was done about this, that's a dereliction of duty," said Mr Biden.
He was speaking at a high school in Wilmington, Delaware, where he took questions from reporters for the first time in months.
House of Representatives Intelligence Committee chairman Adam Schiff, a Democrat, said Mr Trump should take action against Moscow.
"We should be considering what sanctions are appropriate to further deter Russia's malign activities," he told reporters.
Mr Trump trails Mr Biden in opinion polls ahead of the November election amid the coronavirus pandemic's health and economic crises, and nationwide protests against police brutality and racism.
On Tuesday in Wilmington, Mr Biden released an updated plan to tackle the pandemic, calling for more testing and the hiring of at least 100,000 contact tracers.
He predicted that the coronavirus outbreak would likely worsen with the onset of the flu season and said preparations should include more flu vaccines.
He said that, if elected, he would ask the federal government's top disease expert, Dr Anthony Fauci, to serve another term.
REUTERS
