The intelligence, which will be declassified by the Trump administration, was provided to the President in his daily brief on December 17, the official said. His national security adviser Robert O’Brien discussed the information with the President that same day, the official said.
Information of this alleged intelligence is thus far uncorroborated. The scenario is reminiscent of reports earlier this year that Russia allegedly offered Afghan militants bounties to kill US forces in Afghanistan. That information also appeared in the
President’s intelligence briefing although it was later revealed that the information likely went unnoticed for weeks.
Trump has yet to publicly call Russia out on the issue.
While it’s unclear whether President-elect Joe Biden has seen the intelligence, he would have had access to the same intelligence since he receives the President’s Daily Brief.
The White House and the Biden transition team didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
CNN reported in June that Russian intelligence officers for the military intelligence agency GRU had recently offered money to Taliban militants in Afghanistan as rewards if they killed US or UK troops there, according to a European intelligence official. The official told CNN the incentives offered by the Russians had, in their assessment, led to coalition casualties, which would be service members’ deaths or injuries. The official did not specify as to the date of the casualties, their number or nationality, or whether these were fatalities or injuries.
A US official with knowledge of the matter
confirmed to CNN at the time that there was intelligence indicating money was transferred, but it is not clear how verified the intelligence in question was or who exactly the representatives of this Russian unit approached — top leaders or commanders of field units located to the coalition forces.
US intelligence had concluded months prior that Russian military intelligence offered the bounties, amid peace talks, and Trump was briefed on the intelligence findings and the White House’s National Security Council held a meeting about it in late March, according to the
New York Times, citing officials briefed on the matter.
After the news broke in June, Trump
denied receiving a briefing about the intelligence. He tweeted that “there have not been many attacks” on US troops by Taliban fighters as his evidence that the reported intelligence may be “phony” — a step further than an earlier statement from the White House in which press secretary Kayleigh McEnany did not deny the validity of the report, but instead said Trump and Vice President Mike Pence were not briefed “on the alleged Russian bounty intelligence.”
There was discussion as far back as February and March in the US intelligence community and among the top military commanders about the Russian operation to assess the intelligence and what exactly was happening, a US official
told CNN in June. There were some efforts at protecting US forces because of the intelligence, the source also said.
This is a breaking story and will be updated.
CNN’s Paul LeBlanc, Nick Paton Walsh, Veronica Stracqualursi, Radina Gigova, Barbara Starr, Devan Cole and Sarah Westwood contributed to this report.
