--- title: Bolton: ‘Remarkable’ Trump Says He Wasn’t Briefed on Russian Bounties description: It’s “remarkable” that President Donald Trump is denying that he knew of the reports, former national security adviser John Bolton said Sunday. canonical: https://time.com/5860939/john-bolton-trump-russia-bounties-us-troops/ author: TIME article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2020-06-28T18:29:32.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:52:03.300Z article:section: Politics og:title: John Bolton: It's ‘Remarkable’ Trump Says He Wasn’t Briefed About Russia's Reported U.S. Troop Bounties og:description: The New York 'Times' reported Russian military intelligence paid Taliban-linked militias to kill Americans og:url: https://time.com/5860939/john-bolton-trump-russia-bounties-us-troops/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt62bb63f9daa89d48/698a0fd4e76ad2539a637d54/john-bolton-trump-russia-bounties-us-troops.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1024 og:image:height: 576 og:image:alt: Belarusian President Lukashenko meets with US National Security Advisor Bolton og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: John Bolton: It's ‘Remarkable’ Trump Says He Wasn’t Briefed About Russia's Reported U.S. Troop Bounties twitter:description: The New York 'Times' reported Russian military intelligence paid Taliban-linked militias to kill Americans twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt62bb63f9daa89d48/698a0fd4e76ad2539a637d54/john-bolton-trump-russia-bounties-us-troops.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # John Bolton: It's ‘Remarkable’ Trump Says He Wasn’t Briefed About Russia's Reported U.S. Troop Bounties > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ## Video: Joe Biden Criticizes Trump Over Intelligence on Russian Bounties on American Troops in Afghanistan [Watch (HLS stream): Joe Biden Criticizes Trump Over Intelligence on Russian Bounties on American Troops in Afghanistan](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/VyuakbHI.m3u8) (1:16)  _Published 2020-06-28. Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden slammed Trump for the alleged inaction, which was first detailed in a New York Times report on Friday._ by [Ros Krasny and Ben Brody / Bloomberg](https://time.com/author/bloomberg/) ## Ros Krasny and Ben Brody / Bloomberg Contributor Jun 28, 2020 6:29 PM UTC  Former U.S. National Security Advisor John Bolton during a meeting with Belarus' President Alexander Lukashenko. Former U.S. National Security Advisor John Bolton during a meeting with Belarus' President Alexander Lukashenko. Yuri Oreshkin—BelTA/TASS/Getty Images by [Ros Krasny and Ben Brody / Bloomberg](https://time.com/author/bloomberg/) ## Ros Krasny and Ben Brody / Bloomberg Contributor Jun 28, 2020 6:29 PM UTC It’s “remarkable” that President Donald Trump is energetically denying that he knew of intelligence reports that Russian President Vladimir Putin had put bounties on U.S. and allied troops in Afghanistan, former national security adviser John Bolton said Sunday. Two days after a New York Times report on the alleged actions by Russian military intelligence — paying Taliban-linked militias to kill Americans — Trump tweeted that “nobody briefed or told me” of the issue. “It is pretty remarkable the President’s going out of his way to say he hasn’t heard anything about it, one asks, why would he do something like that?” Bolton said. “He can disown everything if no-one ever told him about it,” Bolton said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “It looks like just another day in the office at the Trump White House.” Bolton said he didn’t know the quality of the intelligence on the Russian bounty plan, or the extent of it. And not all information that flows through the many U.S. intelligence agencies is passed on to the commander in chief, Bolton noted. “There needs to be a filter of intelligence for any president, especially for this president,” he said. “Active Russian aggression like that against American servicemen is a very, very serious matter,” Bolton added. Asked why Trump is often defensive of Russia’s Putin, Bolton said he didn’t read anything into it, necessarily. “ I just don’t know what to say other than if he likes dealing with strong authoritarian figures.” Trump on Sunday also lashed out at Democratic nominee Joe Biden, who criticized the president over his handling of the Russian reports on Saturday. Bolton is in the middle of a media blitz to promote his tell-all book depicting the president as consistently [prioritizing](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-06-22/bolton-says-trump-put-re-election-ahead-of-national-security) his own re-election, even above national security. On NBC he repeated a contention that while he won’t vote for Trump in November, he won’t vote for Biden, either. Bolton paints Trump in the book as ignorant, easily manipulated by foreign leaders and unfit for office. Trump has fired back, calling the book “lies” and tweeting that Bolton is “wacko” and a “disgruntled boring fool.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5860939/john-bolton-trump-russia-bounties-us-troops/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5860939/john-bolton-trump-russia-bounties-us-troops/"},"headline":"John Bolton: It's ‘Remarkable’ Trump Says He Wasn’t Briefed About Russia's Reported U.S. Troop Bounties","datePublished":"2020-06-28T18:29:32.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T07:52:03.300Z","description":"The New York 'Times' reported Russian military intelligence paid Taliban-linked militias to kill Americans","url":"https://time.com/5860939/john-bolton-trump-russia-bounties-us-troops/","keywords":["White House","wire","News Desk"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt62bb63f9daa89d48/698a0fd4e76ad2539a637d54/john-bolton-trump-russia-bounties-us-troops.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Ros Krasny and Ben Brody / Bloomberg"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt62bb63f9daa89d48/698a0fd4e76ad2539a637d54/john-bolton-trump-russia-bounties-us-troops.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Belarusian President Lukashenko meets with US National Security Advisor Bolton","caption":"Belarusian President Lukashenko meets with US National Security Advisor Bolton","creditText":"Yuri Oreshkin—BelTA/TASS/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/white-house/","name":"White House"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5860939/john-bolton-trump-russia-bounties-us-troops/","name":"John Bolton: It's ‘Remarkable’ Trump Says He Wasn’t Briefed About Russia's Reported U.S. Troop Bounties"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Joe Biden Criticizes Trump Over Intelligence on Russian Bounties on American Troops in Afghanistan","description":"Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden slammed Trump for the alleged inaction, which was first detailed in a New York Times report on Friday.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/VyuakbHI/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2020-06-28T18:08:18.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/VyuakbHI.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/5860939/john-bolton-trump-russia-bounties-us-troops/","duration":"PT1M16S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/5860939/john-bolton-trump-russia-bounties-us-troops/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```