Secretary of State Mike Pompeo warned Russia’s foreign minister about alleged bounties paid to Taliban fighters for killing American troops, The New York Times is reporting.
Pompeo made the warning on a July 13 phone call with minister Sergey V. Lavrov and is the first known admonishment made by a senior official to Russia in regards to the bounties.
Last month, he told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that “he raised all of the issues that put any Americans at risk” with Lavrov.
Trump, who has worked throughout his presidency to strike up a friendship with Russian President Vladimir V. Putin, told reporters in Florida last month that the intelligence was “another Russian hoax.”
During an interview with “Axios on HBO,” Trump said that he did not raise the issue of the bounty program when he spoke to Putin this month.
“That was a phone call to discuss other things, and, frankly, that’s an issue that many people said was fake news,” Trump said.
According to The Times, the information about Russia and the alleged bounties was put in a daily brief received by the president in February, though Trump denies ever being told about it. The White House has been criticized for its inaction after the information on the bounties became public.
Russia denies that it ever paid bounties to Taliban-linked militants and other Afghan fighters for killing American troops in Afghanistan.
