Washington, Jul 1 (UNI) White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany on Tuesday said that there has been no consensus among the intelligence community over the unsubstantiated media reports about allegations that Russia offered bounties to Taliban-linked militants to assassinate US soldiers in Afghanistan.
"The President was never briefed on this, this intelligence still has not been verified, and there is no consensus among the intelligence community", McEnany told reporters.
He, however, criticized the New York Times newspaper for posting this news.
"The front page of the New York Times is not the venue for discussing classified information.........We are here today, having this discussion, because of an irresponsible, anonymous leak to the New York Times. There is no good scenario as a result of this New York Times report", she said.
On Friday, the New York Times published an article citing unnamed US intelligence officials who claimed that a Russian military intelligence unit offered bounties to Taliban-linked militants to kill US and coalition soldiers in Afghanistan.
Trump said that neither he nor Vice President Mike Pence received a briefing on the issue because the US intelligence community said the allegations were not verified or substantiated. Trump called the article another attempt at a Russia hoax to make Republicans look bad in an election year.
According to Sputnik, Russian officials have denied the allegations as false and characterized them as being part of the internal political infighting in the United States.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday that the Russian and US governments have not been in contact regarding the US corporate media allegations.
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