WASHINGTON -- The Trump administration on Wednesday stepped up defense of its response to intelligence assessments that Russia offered bounties for killing U.S. troops in Afghanistan. President Donald Trump's national security adviser said he had prepared a list of retaliatory options if the intelligence proved true.
Trump, meanwhile, called the assessments a "hoax" and insisted anew that he hadn't been briefed on them because the intelligence didn't reach presidential level. However, national security adviser Robert O'Brien said both the CIA and Pentagon did pursue the leads and briefed international allies.
"We had options ready to go," O'Brien said on "Fox and Friends." "It may be impossible to get to the bottom of it."
At a State Department news conference, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the situation was handled "incredibly well" to ensure the safety of U.S. troops.
"We took this seriously, we handled it appropriately," Pompeo said, without giving additional details. He said the administration receives intelligence about threats to Americans "every single day" and each is addressed.
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Pompeo added that Russian activity in Afghanistan is nothing new and that Russia is just one of many nations acting there. He said that Congress has had similar information in the past, and that he often receives threat assessments that don't rise to the level of a presidential briefing.
Trump is coming under increasing pressure from lawmakers of both parties to provide more answers about the intelligence and the U.S. response or lack of one. Democrats who were briefed at the White House on Tuesday suggested he was bowing to Russian President Vladimir Putin at the risk of U.S. soldiers' lives.
The president has repeatedly said he wasn't briefed on the assessments that Russia offered bounties because there wasn't corroborating evidence. Those assessments were first reported by The New York Times, then confirmed to The Associated Press by American intelligence officials and others with knowledge of the matter.
White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany pointed to an individual who she said made the decision not to brief Trump, identifying the person as a female CIA officer with more than 30 years of experience. O'Brien said the person was a "career CIA briefer."
"The national security adviser agreed with that decision," McEnany said. "It was the right decision to make, and at this moment as I speak to you it is still unverified."
According to two senior administration officials, the White House is not planning an immediate response to the intelligence reports because Trump does not believe the reports are true or "actionable."
Trump is not convinced he should do anything about the bounty issue, which he derided in a Wednesday morning tweet as "just another made up by Fake News tale that is told only to damage me and the Republican Party."
Later Wednesday, Trump said in a television interview that it was a hoax and "we never heard about it" because intelligence officials didn't think it rose to that level.
"The intelligence people, many of them didn't believe it happened at all," Trump said on Fox Business.
One administration official said there is an internal White House dispute about how much information to declassify to support the president's skepticism of the intelligence.
O'Brien said the intelligence wasn't brought to Trump's attention initially because it was unverified and there was no consensus among intelligence officials. But it's rare for intelligence to be confirmed without a shadow of doubt before it is presented to senior government decision-makers.
The national security adviser echoed the recent White House talking point faulting not Russia but government leakers and the media for making the matter public. O'Brien said the CIA has asked the Justice Department to open a leak investigation on the matter.
White House communications director Alyssa Farah declined to comment on the intelligence reports except to say they were "uncorroborated," and to criticize "selectively leaked intelligence." The president, she said, "always puts the safety and security of U.S. service members above all else."
O'Brien told reporters Wednesday that CIA Director Gina Haspel distributed the intelligence to coalition forces "to make sure they could have force protection." He said as soon as the Pentagon received the information, "we made sure we had tactics in place ... to look after our soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines in Afghanistan."
Officials from several NATO allies in Afghanistan, however, said they were not officially informed until last week.
O'Brien said Haspel circulated the "raw intelligence -- even though it wasn't verified." Former intelligence officials say, however, that officials would not have circulated the intelligence or taken precautionary measures had they not believed the reports were credible.
GOP DIVIDED
Senate Republicans appeared split on the matter, with several defending the president and saying that the Russian meddling wasn't new.
Others expressed strong concern.
Sen. Patrick Toomey, R-Pa., called for administration officials to address the entire Senate and answer questions. He said he had reviewed classified documents regarding the potential bounties "upon which recent news reports are based" and said the information raises many questions.
"If it is concluded that Russia offered bounties to murder American soldiers, a firm American response is required in short order," Toomey said.
Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, had similar words on the Senate floor, saying that if the reports are true, "it demands a strong response, and I don't mean a diplomatic response."
House Democrats who were briefed Tuesday at the White House questioned why Trump wouldn't have been briefed sooner and pushed White House officials to have the president make a strong statement. They said the administration should brief all members of Congress.
Intelligence officials, including Haspel and Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe, will brief the so-called Gang of 8 -- Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and the top Republicans and Democrats on the two intelligence committees -- in a classified meeting on Capitol Hill today.
VETERANS' IRE
Separately, reports of Russian bounties on U.S. servicemen and women is straining the president's ties with the nation's military community.
"I don't think he cares about troops at all," said Shawn LeMond, a Navy veteran who also served as a Republican lawmaker in North Carolina's House of Representatives. "If he didn't know about Russia, it's because he didn't do his damn homework. And that's despicable."
After sitting out the 2016 election, LeMond has withdrawn from the Republican Party and plans to vote for Trump's Democratic opponent, Joe Biden, this fall.
It's difficult to gauge how widespread LeMond's sentiment is among veterans, but there was a significant outcry this week from a collection of retired service members, elected officials in both parties and families of fallen soldiers who have lost confidence in the president's commitment to the troops. That's just four weeks after Trump's former defense secretary James Mattis, a retired Marine general, described the president as a threat to the Constitution.
Any erosion in Trump's support from the national security community, long a pillar of the GOP base, could damage his reelection prospects, particularly in swing states with large concentrations of veterans, including Florida, Virginia, Texas and North Carolina.
Rep. Richard Hudson, R-N.C., whose district includes Fort Bragg, acknowledged the troubling nature of the revelations, but like many other Republicans on Capitol Hill, he sidestepped Trump's role.
"There is no consensus on the intelligence yet, but as Fort Bragg's congressman, I'm deeply troubled by the reports," he said. "And if they are verified to be true, I believe there needs to be swift and severe consequences on Russia."
Information for this article was contributed by Mary Clare Jalonick, Matthew Lee, James LaPorta, Steve Peoples, Sarah Blake Morgan, Zeke Miller, Lisa Mascaro, Alan Fram, Matthew Daly, Deb Riechmann, Nathan Ellgrenin, Jonathan Lemire and Deepti Hajela of The Associated Press; and by Ellen Nakashima, Josh Dawsey, Karen DeYoung, Shane Harris, Missy Ryan, John Wagner, Colby Itkowitz and John Hudson of The Washington Post.
