Report on Russian bounties was INCLUDED in the PDB!

[Dennis Donovan]

Link to tweet

Ryan Goodman @rgoodlaw

New reporting from the Times:

“American official had told The Times that the intelligence finding that the Russians had offered and paid bounties to Afghan militants and criminals...WAS INCLUDED IN THE PRESIDENT’S DAILY BRIEF.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/27/us/politics/trump-russia-bounties-afghanistan.html
Biden Criticizes Trump Over Intelligence on Russian Bounties on U.S. Troops
The White House denied that President Trump was briefed on the classified assessment, even though his staff has been discussing the matter since March.

8:19 AM · Jun 28, 2020

Biden Criticizes Trump Over Intelligence on Russian Bounties on U.S. Troops

The White House denied that President Trump was briefed on the classified assessment, even though his staff has been discussing the matter since March.

WASHINGTON — Former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. assailed President Trump on Saturday for failing to punish Russia for offering bounties to the Taliban to kill American troops in Afghanistan, while the White House denied that Mr. Trump had been briefed on the months-old classified intelligence assessment about Russia’s activities.

<snip>

“Not only has he failed to sanction or impose any kind of consequences on Russia for this egregious violation of international law, Donald Trump has continued his embarrassing campaign of deference and debasing himself before Vladimir Putin,” Mr. Biden said in a virtual town hall event held by a voter group, Asian and Pacific Islander American Vote.

“His entire presidency has been a gift to Putin, but this is beyond the pale,” Mr. Biden added. “It’s a betrayal of the most sacred duty we bear as a nation, to protect and equip our troops when we send them into harm’s way.”

<snip>

But one American official had told The Times that the intelligence finding that the Russians had offered and paid bounties to Afghan militants and criminals had been briefed at the highest levels of the White House.

Another said it was included in the President’s Daily Brief, a written document which draws from spywork to make analytic predictions about longstanding adversaries, unfolding plots and emerging crises around the world. The briefing document is given to the president to read and they serve as the basis for oral briefings to him several times a week.

<snip>

[empedocles]

1. The evidence will continue to leak out

[Renew Deal]

2. I'd be shocked if he reads them at all, even if they are all pictures

But I suspect the NYT sat on part of this story because they anticipated the denial.

Drip drip drip

[Baitball Blogger]

8. Not reading reports is a sign of incompetence and negligeance.

Tired of people using this as an excuse.

[Renew Deal]

10. Is the report delivered verbally?

[Cirque du So-What]

18. If so, why didn't his handlers read it to him?

Can’t he handle the truth?

[Renew Deal]

21. He was busy

With Golf

[NCjack]

26. Scheduling golf.

[RVN VET71]

36. They most likely did.

But he, at best, half listens to them. And even if a handler of his underscored the importance of the bounty on American lives, he'd be more likely to brush it off and ask some foolish question about his "numbers" in the polls he claims not to care about.

If I'm right, somebody close to Trump knows that Trump was told and did nothing. And if that's the case, let's hope it's not some dishonorable self-promoter like Bolton with a book deal.

Time will tell. Certainly anyone who was there when Trump was briefed is guilty of treason, as guilty as Trump, unless they speak out. But in the likely event that doesn't happen, in a democracy (remember democracy?) all of his handlers would be summoned before a bipartisan Senatorial committee to testify, behind closed doors, not because their testimony is secret but because that way none would know if the person who testified before them had spilled the beans. Of course the GOP would never cooperate with such an inquiry, being traitors themselves, at least to American constitutional principles.

[mnmoderatedem]

23. he's been known to skip over daily security briefings

said so himself.

No outrage or alarm from the right though. That would only happen if it were Obama.

[Lonestarblue]

28. NBC News reported last year that Trump does not read the Daily Briefs.

At that time, NBC reported that he attended the Daily Briefs only 17 days out of 85.

“A series of recently published presidential schedules show that he has been in just 17 intelligence briefings over the last 85 days. That's about the same frequency as two of his predecessors, Barack Obama and Bill Clinton, according to a former CIA briefer who has written a book on the subject. But unlike those former presidents, Trump does not regularly read the written intelligence briefing sent over each day to the White House, U.S. officials tell NBC News, and in private he frequently questions the integrity and judgment of the intelligence officials who are giving him secret information.” https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/national-security/trump-s-calendar-just-17-intelligence-briefings-85-days-n967386

This article is from April of this year about why Trump did nothing about the virus. And remember at this time, people like Azar and Navarro couldn’t even get a meeting with Trump to sound the alarm.

“During an interview with MSNBC’s Chris Hayes on Monday, Washington Post national security reporter Greg Miller explained one reason why Donald Trump didn’t take the threat seriously: He doesn’t read his daily intelligence briefings.

“Unlike his predecessors, he does not sit down each day to digest this product,” Miller said. “He doesn’t read it, doesn’t skim it.”
https://www.politicususa.com/2020/04/27/trump-didnt-read-the-intelligence-briefings-that-sounded-the-alarm-over-coronavirus.html

So we have a president who doesn’t bother with security briefings in person and also doesn’t bother reading any of the written briefs. Trump is obviously not doing his job, but has something happened making him totally unable to do the job, like a stroke that may have happened last November?

[jcgoldie]

59. Im fairly certain the only genre Trump reads at all...

...is articles about Trump.

[2naSalit]

70. That have been scanned,

prior to delivery to his desk. What I read, years ago?, is that staff preview articles and highlight for him what he should notice.

[Iliyah]

3. Republicans can never tell me how much they . .

appreciate the troops.

[Botany]

4. "WAS INCLUDED IN THE PRESIDENT'S DAILY BRIEF."

End of story.

[malaise]

9. Should be end of his presidency

TREASON!

[DallasNE]

82. Reminds Me Of Bush's PDB

Of August 6, 2001 that said "bin Laden determined to strike inside US". We know what happened 5 weeks later. We just can't afford lazy presidents because that means we have an incompetent president.

[uponit7771]

94. +1

[Alacritous Crier]

5. Personally, I think the GOP has had enough...

This "leak" may just be their method of dumping this guy.

It definitely seems like a legitimate story at this point.

It will only get worse from here for Trump.

GOTV

[wnylib]

27. They will dump him and

disassociate themselves from him. They will embrace POC and make Trump the scapegoat for the racism in their party that has existed for decades and made Trump's candidacy possible.

But little else will change in their politics.

[Alacritous Crier]

45. Yep.

[CrispyQ]

79. Lindsey's golfing with him today.

Last time that happened, Trump came off the course with Graham's lips adhered to his butt with big sucking sounds.

[tanyev]

6. Well, you know he's got more important things to do during a briefing

than pay attention to that person who's just going on and on and on blah, blah, blah.

[sunonmars]

7. Well Trumps lie lasted long

[Mike 03]

12. LOL

I AM SO FINISHED WITH THESE PEOPLE.

[handmade34]

11. not listening when briefed

is not an excuse for not knowing

[Bernardo de La Paz]

25. Not reading when it is part of the job is not an excuse for not knowing. . . . nt

[sop]

13. Drip, drip, drip...Trump will deny, then another "deep state" source will come forward and expose

his lies. That's what happens when you spend four years attacking intel agencies and committing treason.

[SoonerPride]

14. Of course it was. He knew.

They all knew.

[Demsrule86]

33. I would say that GOP types on INTEL knew. Democrats have not received briefings...but Collins and

others also knew.

[SoonerPride]

38. Well I meant specifically the White House and top brass

I don’t think anyone in congress knew.

[duforsure]

15. Trumps denials and lying not working now,

And not only was informed, he knew this was going on and chose to lie and have regular conversations with Putin knowing he was killing American solders, and kept it hidden from the public. Again he is caught, and republicans are showing no outrage , and enabling these types of things to only get worse. He was trying to get Putin into the G7 meeting. How treasonous against America does he have to get to have calls for his resignation, or be removed from office? Republicans are going down with titanic toxic trump from their own doing.

[chriscan64]

16. Among his many impeachable offenses

Simply not reading or understanding the daily briefing because (A) too many words, (B) not enough pictures, (C) not about me, is dereliction of duty. But that may not be the issue here, could have been briefed and said "so what?"

[Demsrule86]

35. Don't give him that out. He would have been briefed verbally and presented with options...none of

which he chose.

[chriscan64]

37. I believe that he was briefed verbally and presented options.

He added option D, none of the above and went on about his business. My point was that he should have been impeached or had the 25th amendment invoked long before it got to this, simply for the inability to comprehend a normal briefing book. Sorry I didn't make myself clear.

[usaf-vet]

81. You want to see HOW he should have reacted. Tell him their is a BOUNTY on Ivanka's head......

..... and coincidently the other two D & E.

Watch the heaven and earth move. Spare no expense. Bring in the elite of the elite for 24/7/365 protection. Threaten God. Get McTurtle to write a special law spelling out the exact punishment to include summary execution on the WH lawn if one hair on her head is blown out of place.

Seriously money and Ivanka seem to be his two motivating forces.

[Evolve Dammit]

17. Teflon Don the Con. What does it take that this is OK???????? It's treason.

[True Blue American]

19. I am so discouraged

With what we are seeing. The news gets worse every day.

When I see Trump go up the stairs of the plane or Helicopter I think of all of those in Government who could do something, anything to stop him I get physically ill. That is how I feel this morning!

Is there no way to stop this insanity? We can not wait 6 months. The Government will be torn apart by then!

[Buckeye_Democrat]

20. Trump possibly didn't read it, which in itself is horrible.

[Demsrule86]

31. bullshit. this was presented to Trump...he knew and chose to do noting.

[Buckeye_Democrat]

32. I'd keep pressing him with questions of what...

... he'll do to retaliate.

We all know he'll hang himself with those kinds of questions.

[FakeNoose]

22. Chump needs to disinvite Putin to the G7 meeting - if nothing else!

This G7 meeting that Chump is "hosting" in September should probably be cancelled because of pandemic concerns. But if he insists on having the meeting anyway, the least he can do is let Pootie know that he won't be welcome.

There should be a public outcry over these bounties on American soldiers, we need to fry his ass on it.

Just sayin'

[wnylib]

34. Would other G7 members refuse

to attend, giving the US covid 19 numbers as a reason, and thus forcing the meeting to be cancelled?

Or maybe decide among themselves to meet in another nation, e.g. Germany, and refuse to allow Putin to attend? After all, Putin is not well regarded by world leaders outside of Russia and the US.

If they do that, I am betting that Trump would refuse to take part in it, making it the G6.

[FakeNoose]

93. Good point

Let's hope the better heads prevail on this and the meeting gets cancelled.

I'm sure the European leaders are aware that Chump will probably lose in November. Why would any of them want to risk their political future - and possibly their safety - by attending this ill-conceived joke of a meeting anyway?

[wnylib]

95. I think that foreign leaders could

have an effect on Trump in a numbet of ways if they got together and made some strategic decisions. On trade, for example. Mzaybe on human rights. They wouldn't need a formal organization, just some informal agreements among themselves on how to handle relationdhips with him.

[C_U_L8R]

24. Then Trump was clearly told.

Trump has to admit he either didn't pay attention to it or purposely didn't do anything about it. In either case, he's unfit and needs to give it up. It's all over except the resignation.

[Ferrets are Cool]

29. If a tree falls in the forest and no one is there, does it make a noise?

If he will not listen to or read his PDB's does that make what is in them nonexistent?

If we don't do so much testing, there wont be so many positive cases of Covid-19.

It all comes together now.

[NCjack]

30. And nothing is done, due to the cowardness of the Republican senators.

DEMs must wrap this around the Republican candidates in office now and seeking re-elections in the future.

[wnylib]

39. Who else would have been briefed

on this intel? Which Congressional committees?

[Texin]

40. Intelligence briefs are given to him verbally because he won't/can't read.

He was told. Of COURSE he was informed! Treasonous motherfucker.

He should be dragged out of the WH by his orange weave and shot and hung up by his heels on the WH balcony on display until the crows peck his carcass into oblivion.

[sop]

41. "Ignorantia juris non excusat" or "ignorantia legis neminem excusat"

"ignorance of the law excuses not" or "ignorance of law excuses no one." That's the legal principle that a person who is unaware of a law may not escape liability for violating that law merely because one was unaware of its content. I guess one could conclude the same thing about the information contained in Presidential Daily Briefings.

[MrModerate]

42. Then Trump is safe from criticism.

If the bounty was mentioned in the PDB, we know Trump didn't read it.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

43. But was it in the first paragraphs, with ...

... a sharpie note "Read This" and an arrow pointing to it.

Otherwise, it is ignored. His attention span won't reach past the first half page.

[ffr]

44. Well, those American spies are probably now dead.

Bet the first move Treasonous tRump did was out the spies who sourced the Russian bounty details.

This makes me sick to my stomach.

[Volaris]

46. The breakdown in communication here seems to be that the IC and WH staff...

...neglected to write this down for him in fucking crayon.

[gulliver]

47. Report on Trump's terribleness, but save something. Wait for him to lie. Then report the something.

The new way to report when you have a guy in the White House whose lying is so predictable.

[SweetieD]

48. I doubt he has ever read a brief or even has the ability to read them.

[wnylib]

55. Of course he hasn't read one.

His purpose in office is not to serve the US as a president.

His purpose is to represent Russian world interests.

His reward for that service to Russia is to reap all the perks of power that he can squeeze out of the abuse of his position, primarily being money and contacts for himself, his family, and his supporters in Congress and business.

Putin is the former KGB director. He knows how to get dirt on people and use it. He identified Trump as an asset whose past Russian dealings made him owned by Russian oligarchs. Putin knew that Trump's con talents would go far with Russian assistance. Putin also identified compromised Americans in government who could be extorted and coerced into supporting Trump's abuses of power against all opposition.

And that's how we got to where we are today.

Now, how will we get out of this? How will we throw the scum out of ALL aspects of government? And how will we deal with Russia once we have cleaned house?

[gab13by13]

49. Trump is good at controlling the narrative,

we need to keep this in the news cycle until election day if that's what it takes. Democrats need to keep this in the news cycle.
Speaker Pelosi should write a bill condemning Putin and put on sanctions and then let Republicans vote against it.

[KY_EnviroGuy]

50. Aren't these the people that prepare that daily report?

Link to tweet

Text:

Office of the DNI @ODNIgov

Statement by DNI Ratcliffe: "I have confirmed that neither the President nor the Vice President were ever briefed on any intelligence alleged by the New York Times in its reporting yesterday." (1/2)

+++++++++++++
Office of the DNI @ODNIgov

"The White House statement addressing this issue earlier today, which denied such a briefing occurred, was accurate. The New York Times reporting, and all other subsequent news reports about such an alleged briefing are inaccurate.” (2/2)

11:19 PM · Jun 27, 2020

KY........... ........

[renate]

76. So he got the DNI to lie for him?

Is the DNI compromised too? What does Putin have on him?

[vlyons]

51. Well now we know, as if we didn't know before that

there is nothing that Trump will do to displease Putin, who is the supreme head of the Russian mob & oligarchy criminal enterprise. Trump has laundered money for them for years through his real estate ventures. They buy apartments in his towers and invest in his various schemes.

Trump owes the Russians 100s of millions from money that he's borrowed from Deutsche Bank and the Bank of Cyprus. Trump will NEVER risk having his loans called, or having his access to funds terminated by standing up to Putin.

We just need a few whistle blowers to state that Trump was most certainly presented a daily briefing detailing how the Russians were paying the Taliban to kill US troops. But Trump didn't read it, inquire about it, or act on it. Ditto Pence if he got the same briefing.

[Ilsa]

52. Well, if they didn't lay out the story in

Cartoon and coloring book format, how could he possibly understand it?

[yellowdogintexas]

72. SchoolHouse Rock? nt

[soothsayer]

74. This?

https://www.theverge.com/tldr/2017/5/22/15675908/the-onion-the-trump-documents-parody-emails

[dlk]

53. What are the odds Pence knew, too?

This level of treason doesn’t happen in a vacuum.

[yellowdogintexas]

73. Odds are high. But Pence will be very quiet on this

waiting to drop the other shoe (but only if he thinks it would be to his advantage)

[dlk]

75. You're exactly right

Reporters shouldn’t give his a pass on this. They should also be more aggressive in asking him to share his thoughts on the responsibilities that go along with Constitutional rights.

[dameatball]

54. None of us know if he actually paid attention to the briefing, but that's beside the point. There

are two options here; Gross incompetence or treason. Repubs probably still will support him.

[doc03]

56. He doesn't read the PDB. nt

[c-rational]

57. The fact that this is months old coupled with the silence of the reThuglicans is sickening. What

have we become as a nation.

[CrispyQ]

58. The Con is too busy whining about how unfair everyone is to him, to bother reading the PDB.

Just think, we could have been rid of this incompetent, corrupt, dangerous asshole on February 5, 2020. The real culprits are these:

[renate]

77. That tweet is spot on... and then I noticed the date

I can’t even begin to remember what the scandal would have been in late December 2017, but that tweet applied to that one and to every scandal since. I hope the GOP is destroyed by this presidency.

[CrispyQ]

78. We need a scandal of the day calendar and lies per hour tracker.

[mfcorey1]

60. Lindsey, Barr and McConnell will fix it!

[louzke9]

61. WHY, OH WHY?

is ANY national intelligence shared with Pence and Trump? Trump will probably go running with it to Putin! Quid pro quo! Hey Putty, help me win re-election and I will share US intelligence with you so you know where/how we are spying on you!

[demmiblue]

62. K&R

[iluvtennis]

63. This is UNFORGIVEABLE. Commander In Chief, yeah right (...sarcasm...). nt

[Cognitive_Resonance]

64. Doubt he'll be president on Election Day. Pence may have a shot at shortest term since Harrison. nt

[Pepsidog]

65. Why isn't every Democratic leader and member screaming for his resignation?

[mercuryblues]

66. if you never want trump to know something

Put it in the Presidential Daily Brief. He never reads those. He prefers listening to his "gut."

[Yeehah]

67. It should be fun watching lying snake McEnany explain this

These people have no morals or principles other than other than obtaining money and power.

[roamer65]

68. I want to see Putin in a body bag for this.

I’ll refrain from what I want to see happen to Dump. I’d be banned.

[dalton99a]

69. Kick

[benpollard]

71. That's just Trump...

... being Trump.

He doesn't have any interest in governing--never has and never will. He's just in it for the money and the power.

[Doodley]

80. He was given the responsibility of president, but devoted all his time to airing grievances,

avenging those who he feels have slighted him, creating division and enriching himself. He could have spent half the time that he spends on Twitter being a real president, but he hasn't got the intelligence to even pretend to a real president.

[SiliconValley_Dem]

83. Vindeman's revenge

same with others. there are so many willing to speak up now

[Cha]

84. RT! TY! And, there it is!

Link to tweet

[Mr.Bill]

85. So they found the best way to hide it from him.

I bet they do this a lot.

[wishstar]

86. He was too busy with Fox and Friends and rw conspiracies to pay attention to daily briefings

and he doesn't believe Putin's Russia does anything that he should criticize and certainly not sanction them for.

[Mr.Bill]

87. So when another country pays someone to kill our soldiers

isn't that an act of war?

[linda52]

88. But user DetlefK told us not to believe it!

https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=13665654

[struggle4progress]

89. "Why did you put it in the Daily Briefing? You know I never read that!

You should have had a white supremacist post it on Twitter so I could retweet it!"

[Blue_true]

90. I imagine the first meeting between President Biden and Putin.

Sort of like when Michael Corleone met with Carlo Rossi after Michael had the rival Dons killed.

Biden: "They aren't there Vlad, no need to try calling them".

Biden gives off a list of GRU operatives and says "they're all dead, Vlad. You have to pay for putting a bounty on American soldiers Vlad, so don't tell me that you didn't know, it insults my intelligence".

[joanbarnes]

91. "Bin Laden determined to strike in US" another PDB ignored and Bush never answered for that.

[BobTheSubgenius]

92. GOP "Presidents" seem to have all kinds of difficulty with the PDB.

911, and now this??? They really should take intel briefings seriously. They are serious findings curated by serious people.

How much more do you need to know in order to give the PDB (and the hundreds, maybe thousands, that toil their lives away to bring it into existence, some at great peril) its due?