Dems Fault Trump Over Russia Bounty Allegations, Ask For More Information

House Democrats condemned and mocked President Trump after a meeting at the White House on the alleged Russian bounty payments on Tuesday and said they want more information from the intelligence community.

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer led Democrats in the Tuesday meeting that included a number of members, including the chairmen of the Foreign Affairs, Armed Services and Intelligence Committees as well as others.

Hoyer and his colleagues said they didn't believe they received "any new substantive information" but they nonetheless criticized what they called the poor practices within the Trump administration that has led to this point.

"This was a red flag — it either was not waved or the president ignored that wave," Hoyer said.

At issue are what appear to be disputed allegations within the spy world about whether Russian paramilitary or intelligence operatives might have paid bounties to the Taliban in order to target U.S. and allied troops.

Members of Congress, intelligence and Defense Department authorities have intimated that they are trying to bolster an evidentiary case based on discoveries by U.S. forces in Afghanistan and, potentially, statements by captured enemies or others.

Some officials have said that work may now be disrupted by the press reports and public furor about it.

The Democrats who visited the White House on Tuesday said they considered what exists in evidence today serious enough not only to have merit a presentation to Trump but a warning by him to Russian President Vladimir Putin not to target American forces.

"It makes no sense at all for the president and the administration not to call out Putin," said Rep. Elliot Engel, D-N.Y., chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. "If that isn't something to go crazy about, I don't know what is. It just makes no sense at all."

Hoyer and his colleagues say they want to hear directly from intelligence community leaders, as compared with the White House officials with whom they met on Tuesday, and for every member of Congress to get a presentation too.

Dems revive Russia criticism

The lawmakers revived old criticisms that Trump is too deferential to Putin and Russia. They also faulted what they called a dysfunctional situation at the White House.

"There may be a reluctance to brief the president on things he doesn't want to hear — that may be more true with respect to Putin and Putin's Russia more than any other subject," said Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., chairman of the House Intelligence Committee. "If there's a problem with briefing the president on intelligence he doesn't want to hear that's a problem for our whole nation's national security."

But Schiff also implied the intelligence agencies and aides responsible for keeping Trump informed about threats may have not done all they could to get him to digest the bounty allegations.

"If a president doesn't read briefs it doesn't work to give him the product and not tell him what's in it," Schiff said.

He continued: "I don't want to comment on this particular case but it's not a justification to say that the president should have read what whatever materials he has — if he doesn't read, he doesn't read. They should know that by know. If there's something the president needs to know before he talks to Putin, it needs to be shared with him before he talks to Putin. It needs to be shared with him in whichever way he takes it."

The New York Times and the Associated Press have reported that intelligence officials reported the Russian bounty allegations to White House officials months or more ago, likely in written materials — ones Trump evidently did not absorb, given his denials about knowing of the allegations.

Scrutiny following press bombshells

The White House has faced significant scrutiny since the first reports of the bounty payments were made public and stirred confusion among onlookers about what was known when and by whom.

Leaders in Congress and the chairmen of the relevant committees — including Intelligence and Armed Services — evidently weren't read in.

Trump said on Sunday that the report was "probably just another phony Times hit job."

The reporting has since been amplified by other news organizations and by members of Congress and even by a very rare statement from the director of the CIA.

D brief follows earlier meeting with GOP

Hoyer and his colleagues followed eight House Republicans, who were briefed Monday at the White House on the reports.

Those lawmakers took a mostly cautious tone, calling the bounty allegations serious but calling for more investigation.

Rep. Mike McCaul, R-Texas, told NPR that he considered the matter serious but that the intelligence isn't yet "actionable" — and accordingly the White House couldn't decide what to do.

Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., said he didn't see a problem with lower-level officials working on finding out more before asking the president to set aside time on his calendar.

"I don't see any reason he necessarily should have been [briefed] at this point," Kinzinger said. "And so I think as we get more answers, then we'll know what the response needs to be, but I don't think this has been built up to be any kind of internal scandal. But it is definitely a concern ...what role is Russia playing in Afghanistan."

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who was not part of Tuesday's White House meeting, has called for the full House to be briefed, and said she relayed that request directly to Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe and CIA Director Gina Haspel over the phone Monday.

In statements Monday evening, the director of national intelligence and CIA director said the will continue to look into the matter and will brief the president and congressional leaders at the appropriate time.

They condemned the release of information about the investigation to the press.

Defense Department spokesman Jonathan Hoffman declared unequivocally that the Pentagon, for its part, cannot verify that bounties were paid to insurgents to target American or allied forces.

"The Department of Defense continues to evaluate intelligence that Russian GRU operatives were engaged in malign activity against United States and coalition forces in Afghanistan," he said. "To date, DOD has no corroborating evidence to validate the recent allegations found in open-source reports." [Copyright 2020 NPR]