President Trump on Friday denied knowing about a Navy SEAL mission in North Korea in 2018 during his first term, following The New York Times reporting on the botched operation.
Trump was asked if the administration has engaged with North Korea since it happened and responded, “I don’t know anything about it, no. I’d have to — I could look, but I know nothing about that.”
“I don’t know anything about it,” Trump said on the Oval Office when pressed on if he could confirm it happened. “I’m hearing it now for the first time.”
The Times reported a group of Navy SEALs went on a top secret mission, with Trump’s direct approval, to plant an electronic device to intercept North Korea leader Kim Jong Un’s communications while he was engaged in nuclear talks with the U.S.
The mission unraveled, the Times reported, when SEALs opened fire on a North Korean boat and killed everyone on it, then retreated without planting the device. The Trump administration at the time reportedly did not notify members of Congress before or after the mission.
The mission was given in 2018 to SEAL Team 6’s Red Squadron, which is the unit that killed Osama bin Laden in 2011 in Afghanistan.
The White House declined to comment on the Times story.
