White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said in a statement Saturday that President and Vice President Mike Pence were not briefed “about alleged intelligence of the Russian gift.”

McEnany said his statement “did not speak of the supposed intelligence allegation but for the inaccuracy of the New York Times story,” which said Trump had been briefed.

McEnany did not deny the validity of US intelligence reportedly that Russian intelligence units offered gifts to militants linked to the Taliban to carry out attacks on coalition forces in Afghanistan.

National Intelligence Director John Ratcliffe said in his own statement late Saturday that he had “confirmed that neither the President nor the Vice President had been briefed on intelligence alleged by the New York Times in his report yesterday.”

He added: “The White House statement which addressed this issue earlier today, which denied such directives were happening, was accurate. The New York Times report, and all subsequent news reports about the alleged directing were inaccurate.”

CNN has contacted the Office of the Director of National Intelligence for additional comments. CNN has also contacted the Department of Defense, the Department of Foreign Affairs, and the CIA, and did not receive comments.

According to the Times, the Trump administration held an expanded briefing on intelligence assessment this week and shared information about it with the British government, whose troops are also believed to have been targeted.

The newspaper reported that officials thought of possible responses, including starting with diplomatic complaints to Moscow, requests to stop, and sanctions – but the White House had not yet permitted any action.

The Russian Embassy in Washington, DC, on Friday denounced the Times report as “baseless accusations” which had led to death threats against Russian diplomats in Washington and London.

The Taliban also rejected the Times report that they were offered gifts from Russia to target US troops in Afghanistan.

“We strongly reject this accusation. The nineteen-year jihad of the Islamic Emirate does not owe a favor to the good of the intelligence organs or foreign countries and the Islamic Emirate does not need anyone to set goals,” a spokesman for the militant group Zabihullah Mujahid said in a statement Saturday.

In its covert operation, Russian spy units inside the GRU intelligence agency had offered prizes for the successful attack last year, and Islamic guerrillas, or armed criminal colleagues, are thought to have collected prize money, the Times reported.

The European official told CNN that Russian intelligence officers worked for the GRU unit known as 29155, which had previously been blamed by European intelligence officials for the attempted assassination of Sergei Skripal, a former KGB agent who had been recruited years before by British intelligence, and his daughter in 2018 in Salisbury, England, and other prominent attacks in Europe.

The Times reported that the motivation behind the operation was unclear and there was uncertainty about how far in the Kremlin the operation was authorized.

The US intelligence assessment is said to be based in part on interrogations of captured militants and Afghan criminals, according to the newspaper.

Former Vice-President Joe Biden on Saturday called Trump’s presidency a “gift” for Putin, referring to the New York Times report at a town hall focused on Asia Pacific Pacific issues. “This is the betrayal of every American family with loved ones on duty in Afghanistan or anywhere abroad. I am frankly angry with the report, and if I am elected president, don’t make mistakes about it, Vladimir Putin will be confronted . ”

Texas Rep. Michael McCaul, Republican member of the Parliament’s Foreign Affairs, said in a statement on Saturday that he “immediately contacted the Administration,” adding that if the allegations in the New York Times report were true, the government “must act quickly and take serious action to hold the regime accountable Putin. “

But Trump and his administration point to US sanctions against Russia, arguing that he is tougher on the country than the previous president.

US forces are currently serving in Afghanistan as part of a US-led NATO mission to train, assist and advise Afghan forces and focus on counterterrorism operations targeting local ISIS affiliates and al Qaeda.

This story has been updated with additional reactions, statements from the White House press secretary, information from European intelligence officials and statement from the Director of National Intelligence.