Why skeptics aren't buying the White House's line that Trump wasn't briefed on Russian bounty report

CIA headquarters.
(Image credit: SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images)

The White House on Monday reiterated that President Trump was not briefed on United States intelligence that found a Russian military intelligence unit was offering bounties to Taliban-linked militants to kill U.S. and coalition troops. The reason, Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany said, was because there was "no consensus" within the intelligence community and the report wouldn't make its way to the Oval Office until it was "verified."

Skeptics, including former CIA officer Ned Price, aren't buying the explanation, however, noting that if things were handled that way within the intelligence community then former President Barack Obama wouldn't have been briefed on the intelligence placing Osama bin Laden in a compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan. Obama eventually signed off on a raid of the complex that resulted in bin Laden's death in 2011.

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Tim O'Donnell

Tim is a staff writer at The Week and has contributed to Bedford and Bowery and The New York Transatlantic. He is a graduate of Occidental College and NYU's journalism school. Tim enjoys writing about baseball, Europe, and extinct megafauna. He lives in New York City.