President Donald Trump is being confronted on if he spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin about the reported Russian bounties on U.S. troops.
When asked during an interview with “Axios on HBO” on Tuesday about the intelligence Russia allegedly paid bounties to Taliban-linked militants to kill U.S. troops and if he brought the subject up during his phone call with Putin on Thursday.
“No, that was a phone call to discuss other things,” the president responded, adding, “And frankly that’s an issue that many people said was fake news.”
When pressed again on the issue, Trump said, “I have never discussed it with him.”
As Axios reports, the U.S. president has talked with Putin “at least eight times since intelligence about the alleged Russian bounties was reportedly included in the President’s Daily Brief — his written intelligence briefing — in late February.”
Watch Trump’s interview below:
Trump continued in claiming that the intelligence on Russian bounties “never reached my desk” because intelligence “didn’t think it was real.”
“If it reached my desk, I would’ve done something about it,” Trump said, again denying it ever reached his desk. However, CNN previously reported that the intelligence was in one of Trump’s daily briefings, citing an anonymous U.S. official.
The president’s remarks during the Axios interview follows after The New York Times reported in June that Russia offered the Taliban bounties “for killing coalition forces in Afghanistan — including targeting American troops — amid the peace talks to end the long-running war there.” Russian and Taliban officials have denied the allegations. Trump has also called the reports a “hoax.”