Amber Phillips is on vacation, so her Fix colleagues will bring you the newsletter this week. President Trump's long, aspirational, tortured relationship with Russia and its president, Vladimir Putin, entered one of its most controversial chapters this weekend. The New York Times first reported — with The Washington Post and others following up — that U.S. intelligence has assessed that a Russian military spy unit offered bounties to Taliban-linked fighters in Afghanistan to kill coalition troops, including American ones, and that there was intense debate within the U.S. intelligence community about how to respond as far back as late March. The Post further reported Sunday that the bounties have indeed been linked to U.S. troop deaths. Three months later, the Trump administration still hasn't responded. The potential scandal here is readily apparent: the idea that a president and an administration would do nothing about an antagonistic foreign power funding the killing of Americans. And the White House has ramped up its denials. Initially, it disputed reports that Trump had been briefed on any such intelligence. On Sunday, Trump more directly denied that underlying intelligence, too. "Intel just reported to me that they did not find this info credible, and therefore did not report it to me or @VP" Pence, Trump tweeted. White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany on Monday gave an answer out of sync with Trump's, saying there was "no consensus," that there were "dissenting opinions," and that the "veracity of the underlying allegations continue to be evaluated." But Intelligence officials continue to affirm the underlying intelligence, and say it was briefed to the highest levels of the White House. Some congressional Republicans and Trump allies, such as Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (S.C.), are demanding answers. There's still plenty we don't know, including which attacks on U.S. troops might have been linked to the bounties. Here is a timeline of what we know, when it happened and what Trump has done vis-a-vis Russia since the intelligence community's conclusion. April 2017: Army Gen. John Nicholson, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, appears to confirm reports that Russia is arming the Taliban. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis adds, "Any weapons being funneled here from a foreign country would be a violation of international law unless they were coming to the government of Afghanistan." February 2018: U.S. troops and their Syrian allies kill about 100 people, including Russian mercenaries who were working for Yevgeniy Prigozhin, an oligarch with links to Putin, after coming under attack. The event marks the deadliest clash between Americans and Russians since the Cold War ended three decades earlier. U.S. officials have indicated that they think the bounties may have been in retaliation for this, according to The Post. March 2018: Nicholson again cites "destabilizing activity by the Russians" in Afghanistan. The Taliban and Russia say the claim is baseless. April 2019: Three U.S. Marines are killed and three service members are injured in an attack on an American convoy returning to Bagram air base in Afghanistan. The Taliban claims responsibility. Intelligence officials focused on this event and others as potentially being linked to the Russian bounties, according to the Associated Press. October 2019: Russia joins the United States, China and Pakistan in signing a statement on peace in Afghanistan. Early 2020: SEAL Team 6 raids a Taliban outpost and recovers $500,000 in cash — an event that affirmed the intelligence community's suspicions about Russia paying bounties, according to AP. Feb. 29: The United States strikes an initial peace deal with the Taliban, which includes a full withdrawal of U.S. forces in 14 months. But Taliban-linked groups would fail to comply with the deal, and further planned peace talks have yet to materialize. Late March: U.S. intelligence holds a large interagency meeting to discuss intelligence that Russia offered Taliban-allied forces in Afghanistan bounties for killing coalition forces, including U.S. troops. Intelligence concluded that Russia had done just that. The New York Times reported that Trump had been briefed on the matter at this time, which Trump and the White House have denied. The administration still hasn't decided how to respond. April 18: Trump says, "I have a very good relationship with Putin." May 8: Trump says of Russia, "We had no calls from Russia for years. And all of a sudden, we have this great friendship. And, by the way, getting along with Russia is a great thing, getting along with Putin and Russia is a great thing." May 8: Trump speaks with Putin and offers to send ventilators to help Russia fight the coronavirus outbreak there. The United States will send 200 ventilators as part of a $5.6 million humanitarian package. May 21: Trump says, "Russia and us have developed a very good relationship. As you know, we worked on the oil problem together. I think we have a very good relationship with Russia." May 30: Trump postpones the G-7 summit and renews his calls for Russia to be reinstated into it. June 5: Trump says of the ventilators, "We're sending some to Russia. It's good for relationship. It's good for everything." June 24: Trump attacks the Obama administration for allegedly having been weak on Russia. After Polish President Andrzej Duda brings up Russia's 2014 annexation of Crimea from Ukraine and its attacks on the country of Georgia, Trump says, "I just want to add: 2014, which the president was talking about — that was a year where Russia had a good time with the United States. To the best of my knowledge, President Obama and Sleepy Joe Biden, they were in power. They were the ones that were doing it. This was before us. It hasn't happened with us, and it won't happen with us, either." June 25: One day before news of the Russian bounties and the lack of a U.S. response breaks, Trump repeats his claim to having been tough on Russia. "I was tougher on Russia than any president that's ever lived — any president," Trump tells Fox News Channel's Sean Hannity when Hannity asks him about the gravity of being president. "Nobody has done what I've done with sanctions and all — exposing the pipeline deal going into Europe. Nobody did that. Nobody even talked about it." June 26: The New York Times breaks the news about Russia's bounties. It would soon be confirmed by The Post, the Associated Press and others. |