The Trump administration has opened up a leak investigation to discover who disclosed classified intelligence reports related to an alleged plot by the Russians to pay bounties to Taliban fighters who kill U.S. or coalition forces in Afghanistan.
Politico reported on Tuesday that the Trump administration had “opened an internal investigation” into the leaks, noting that “the administration has interviewed people with access to the intelligence, and believes it has narrowed down the universe of suspects to fewer than 10 people.” CBS News reporter Catherine Herridge tweeted: “U.S. government sources tell CBS News that the administration is investigating the source of leaked intelligence about alleged Russian bounties paid to the Taliban … Among the main drivers: sensitivity of intel + collection methods.”
An official with the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, which coordinates the nation’s intelligence community and oversees its 17 spy agencies, told the Washington Examiner that “as guardians of our nation’s security, clearance holders are entrusted with the solemn duty to protect classified information,” and “while we won’t comment on any particular investigation, leaking classified information is a crime and is always fully investigated.”
The controversy began when the New York Times reported in late June that a U.S. intelligence assessment concluded that a Russian spy unit paid Taliban-connected militants in Afghanistan to kill U.S. and other coalition troops even as the Trump administration sought to reach a peace deal involving the Taliban and the Afghan government. The newspaper further reported that President Trump was briefed about the bounties in the spring and that officials developed a list of options to respond, but the outlet’s sources said the administration had yet to authorize any of the actions. Since then, some Trump administration officials have insisted Trump wasn’t briefed on these allegations until after the leaks were published. Democrats have condemned Trump for not taking action against Russia.
Frank McKenzie, a Marine Corps general and commander of U.S. Central Command, told reporters on Tuesday that he was “very familiar with this material” and “found it very worrisome.” But he also voiced skepticism.
“I just didn’t find that there was a causative link there,” McKenzie said. “It worried me, and we take extreme force protection measures all the time in Afghanistan. Because whether the Russians are paying the Taliban or not, over the past several years, the Taliban have done their level best to carry out operations against us.”
“The intelligence case wasn’t proved to me,” McKenzie said, but “it was proved enough to worry me.” He added that the “Russians generally want to have the opportunity to throw sand in our gears when they can and make life uncomfortable for us.”
Robert O’Brien, who has served as Trump’s national security adviser since September, said last week that the CIA had requested the Justice Department open a criminal investigation into the classified leaks. The Justice Department did not respond to the Washington Examiner’s request for comment.
“Some leaker, whoever it is, and I understand that there has been a crimes report filed by the CIA with the Department of Justice — some leaker took it upon themselves in an effort to attack the president or maybe promote some policy agenda to leak allegations that now make it almost impossible to find out what happened,” O’Brien said. “Because somebody decided to leak this intelligence while we were trying to get to the bottom of it, that may never be possible now, and that’s a shame.”
On Wednesday, O’Brien said: “As far as intelligence goes, and intelligence leaks, we don’t comment on those, but we take them seriously, we look into them — and if there’s someone out there or if there’s a country out there that is seeking to harm Americans, then they should be on notice that that is a very dangerous task.”
Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe, who was sworn in in May, previously said, “The selective leaking of any classified information disrupts the vital interagency work to collect, assess, and mitigate threats and places our forces at risk.” He added, “It is also, simply put, a crime.”
Gina Haspel, who took over the CIA in 2018, said, “Leaks compromise and disrupt the critical interagency work to collect, assess, and ascribe culpability.”
Two dozen U.S. service members have been killed in combat in Afghanistan since the start of 2019. The United States and the Taliban struck a shaky peace agreement in February. The Taliban denied accepting such bounties from Russia, and the Russian Embassy called it “fake news.” Former Vice President Joe Biden, who is the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, said Trump’s “entire presidency has been a gift to [Russian President Vladimir] Putin, but this is beyond the pale.”
