'I don't know anything': Donald Trump denies knowledge of 2019 Seal Team 6 mission; rejects approval reports

US President Donald Trump on Friday said he did not know “anything” about a classified 2019 Seal Team 6 mission in North Korea that The New York Times reported resulted in the deaths of unarmed North Korean civilians.

Speaking from the Oval Office, Trump was asked by a reporter, “Can you confirm that it happened?”

“I don't know anything about it. I'm hearing it now for the first time,” he responded, as reported by ABC News.


The Times cited “two dozen people, including civilian government officials, members of the first Trump administration and current and former military personnel with knowledge of the mission” who spoke anonymously, saying Trump had approved the operation.

According to the report, Seal Team 6 commandos were sent to plant a device that would “let the United States intercept the communications of North Korea’s reclusive leader, Kim Jong-un, amid high-level nuclear talks with President Trump.”

The Times said US team members feared they had been spotted by a North Korean boat approaching the area. Seals opened fire, killing everyone on board.

Upon inspection, none of the people in the boat were armed, and evidence suggested “the crew, which people briefed on the mission said numbered two or three people, had been civilians diving for shellfish.”

The Seals returned safely to a nearby large nuclear-powered submarine and fled the North Korean coast undetected. The report also said that no one in the Trump administration informed Congress about the botched mission.