The White House is apparently trying to recently undermine the intelligence community and independent journalists by instructing Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe to shoot holes into the report Russia paid Afghans to target American and allied personnel.
The New York Times reports that in a memo dating July 1st, the DNI reexamines existing information, finding gaps in the intelligence to cast doubt on Russia’s connections to the bounty payments. The DNI relies on no new information, instead stressing small gaps in information previously provided.
The memo appears to have been commissioned after the news reports of the bounty program became public in late June.
Former Director of the National Counterterrorism Center Matthew Olson notes that these reports and assessments are never definitive, so it would be easy to spin the facts to “misrepresent” the narrative.