John Bolton, who over the last couple of weeks said he had personal knowledge that President Trump was personally briefed on Bountygate (the accusation that Russian Intelligence was paying Talbian fighters rewards for American or coalition soldiers killed, and that Trump did nothing about it), is now all of a sudden reluctant to talk the subject.
Indeed the entire narrative behind Bountygate seems to have fallen by the wayside.
Democrats on Capitol Hill who last week were screaming bloody murder over the story have all of a sudden gone mum.
And after first alleging that Trump knew about the bounties and did nothing, The New York Times had to walk back previous allegations about the President definitely knowing about the story. Subsequent reporting by The Times says only that parts of the intelligence were included in the Presidential Daily Brief.
But perhaps the most damaging blow to the narrative has come from the intelligence community. It was revealed that the National Security Agency strongly dissented with other intelligence agencies on the payment of any bounties that originated with CIA, who in turn go their intelligence from sources within the Afghani government.
Even The Pentagon shot down the claims. “To date, DOD has no corroborating evidence to validate the recent allegations found in open-source reports,” it said in a rare statement.
Bolton was asked yesterday exactly what he knew and when he knew it about bounty gate, but uncharacteristically, was no longer being as accusatory as he had been in previous days. Given more than one opportunity to about the subject, Bolton offered little comment.
Was @AmbJohnBolton aware of Russian-paid bounties on American service-members when he was National Security Adviser? He declines to answer.
WATCH –> pic.twitter.com/fnl28mfn2C
— Face The Nation (@FaceTheNation) July 5, 2020
Stories about Trump’s relationship with Russia have been relentless since his coming into office. So far, very little, if any serious wrongdoing has been proven and most “scandals” have fallen apart over time. The only thing different about this one is that it seems to have done so in record time.