The heads of the intelligence community will report to top congressional leaders on Thursday on reports that Russia has offered rewards to militants in Afghanistan for killing US soldiers, the highest-level briefing for members of Congress on the matter. until now.
The 11:30 am briefing will be delivered by the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), Gina Haspel, and the Director of the National Security Agency (NSA), Paul Nakasone, complying with the demands of the Democrats that lawmakers get their information about the scandal from the intelligence community. than the White House staff.
After a briefing by White House officials of several top House Democrats on Tuesday, Speaker of the House Committee on Intelligence, Adam Schiff, a Democrat from California, complained that “the right people to give the briefing “they were not in the room”.
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Democrats have also demanded that all members of the House of Representatives be briefed on the issue of the reward, which has become an important story after reports that the president was briefed on intelligence on the matter, but not did nothing in response.
“Over the weekend, we learned of allegations that our intelligence services evaluated in March that Russia had been offering a monetary reward for killing US troops in Afghanistan. Outrageously, President Trump appears to have taken no action Since then, it has not even warned the Russian government will stop, “House of Representatives Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, a Democrat from Maryland, said in a statement this week.
But the administration has denied that Trump has been informed of the reports, saying they did not tell him because intelligence was in dispute. It has made no move to comply with the House of Representatives’ request for information.
“Intel just informed me that they did not find this information credible and therefore did not report it to me or @VP. Possibly another fabricated Russia hoax, perhaps because of the fake @nytimesbooks news, wanting to make the Republicans look bad !!! “Trump tweeted on Sunday.
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“The intelligence community does not have a consensus,” said national security adviser Robert O’Brien about the president’s knowledge of the rewards. “And as a result, the president’s brief CIA career decided not to inform him because it was unverified intelligence.” “
He added that he supported the decision by Trump’s CIA side Beth Sanner, whom he called “an outstanding officer,” not to inform him of “unverified” intelligence, which is sometimes provided to presidents with warnings based on the intelligence officials trial. However, other reports have indicated that the reward information was included in the President’s Daily Report as long ago as last year, but Trump is known for not reading those detailed documents regularly.
The Trump administration briefed some members of both parties in the House and made classified documents available to both parties in the Senate. The House Intelligence Committee is scheduled to receive information on the reward issue Thursday at 1 pm and Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe attended a pre-scheduled briefing for the Senate Intelligence Committee on Wednesday. .
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The Band of Eight is comprised of the leadership of both houses of Congress, as well as the president and senior member of the intelligence committees of both houses. Therefore, Thursday’s briefing will include Schiff, Rep. Devin Nunes, Republican from California, Senator Marco Rubio, Republican from Florida, Senator Mark Warner, Democrat from Virginia, Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi, Democrat from California , House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., And Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, DN.Y.
There was confusion on Wednesday about when exactly the briefing would occur, some believed it would be Wednesday and others said Thursday. Later in the afternoon, however, White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany confirmed that the briefing will take place on Thursday.
Members of Congress on both sides of the aisle have demanded answers on whether or not the president knew of the alleged rewards, citing the president’s responsibility to protect members of the American service, with Democrats launching particularly sharp attacks.
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“If this is not treason, I don’t know what,” said Rep. Seth Moulton, D-Mass., Iraq War Veteran. “As a second lieutenant, if I did not consider an intelligence report … and kill my Marines, I would not be tweeting excuses, I would be in prison. Because that is the standard of responsibility for the youngest officer in the United States military states. “
Trump, however, has criticized the New York Times reports.
“The Russian Bounty story is just another story made up by Fake News that is said to only harm me and the Republican Party,” Trump tweeted Wednesday. “The secret source probably doesn’t even exist, as does the story itself. If the discredited @nytimes has a source, reveal it. Just another HOAX!”
Fox News’ Chad Pergram, Griff Jenkins, Jason Donner and Brooke Singman contributed to this report.
