Reports by the New York Times, Washington Post and Wall Street Journal, quoting unnamed US officials, said a Russian military intelligence unit had offered Taliban-linked militants bounties to kill US troops in Afghanistan…
Moscow maintains close links with the Taliban, as it sees the US involvement in Afghanistan winding down, the BBC’s diplomatic correspondent Jonathan Marcus says.
He says Russia is also waging a “grey” or undeclared war against the West. Under President Vladimir Putin, the Kremlin has smarted from every perceived indignity suffered since the fall of the Soviet Union. It was US support for Afghan irregular fighters that contributed to Moscow’s forced withdrawal from Afghanistan in the 1980s.
…The New York Times, citing two unnamed US officials, said the intelligence assessment had been included in the President’s Daily Brief report – a written document with key government intelligence – in late February.
CNN and the Associated Press have also reported that the president received the intelligence in a written briefing earlier this year, without specifying when. Mr Trump is said to largely ignore the President’s Daily Brief, relying more on oral briefings by intelligence officials a few times a week.
Or he’ll just sit on his dead ass and wait for Fox Fake News to tell him what he needs to know — to sound presidential.
Eideard 
➡️ “White House says Trump reads amid questions about his handling of intelligence briefing” https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/30/politics/donald-trump-intelligence-briefings/index.html
➡️ “White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany has said President Trump is the “most informed person on planet earth” about threats facing the US.” [in reply after a journalist asked if the president does not read his daily intelligence briefings] https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-us-canada-53244338/trump-most-informed-person-on-planet-earth-on-us-threats
➡️ “Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., told Fox News Radio Tuesday that it is unlikely President Trump was briefed on intelligence that Russia secretly offered bounties to Taliban-linked militants for killing American troops in Afghanistan due to the information’s unverified nature.” https://www.foxnews.com/media/adam-kinzinger-russian-bounty-intel-trump-briefing
➡️ “Suspicions of Russian Bounties Were Bolstered by Data on Financial Transfers : Analysts have used other evidence to conclude that the transfers were most likely part of an effort to offer payments to Taliban-linked militants to kill American and coalition troops in Afghanistan.” https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/30/us/politics/russian-bounties-afghanistan-intelligence.html
➡️ “Kayleigh McEnany says ‘rogue intel officers’ hurting US national security” https://nypost.com/2020/06/30/kayleigh-mcenany-says-rogue-intel-officers-hurting-us/
White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany talks to reporters during a news conference on June 30, 2020 in Washington, DC. Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
“Cannon fodder is an informal, derogatory term for combatants who are regarded or treated by government or military command as expendable in the face of enemy fire.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cannon_fodder
“Trump Says He Did Not Ask Putin About Suspected Bounties to Kill U.S. Troops : Amid no new signs of investigative developments, the president also said for the first time that he would have acted had he known about an earlier C.I.A. assessment.” (NYT) https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/29/us/politics/trump-putin-bounties.html
“…Mr. Trump hinted for the first time at blaming subordinates for failing to bring the matter to his attention. “If it reached my desk, I would have done something about it,” he said. Officials have said the assessment was in his written intelligence brief in February, although he rarely reads it.”
“Trump Got Written Briefing in February on Possible Russian Bounties, Officials Say” https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/29/us/politics/russian-bounty-trump.html
See also Tuesday Trump interview “Axios on HBO” https://www.axios.com/trump-russia-bounties-taliban-putin-call-4a0f6110-ab58-41c0-96fc-57b507462af1.html The full interview will air Monday, August 3, 2020 at 11 p.m. ET/PT on all HBO platforms.