US intelligence agencies plan to brief former President Donald Trump this year if he secures the Republican presidential nomination, even though he faces federal criminal charges for mishandling classified information after leaving office.
The intelligence community is likely to follow past practices for candidates, and Trump has no plans to cancel the briefings if he becomes the GOP nominee, two sources familiar with the matter said. Canceling the briefings for Trump could open President Joe Biden to accusations of politicizing access to intelligence, one of the sources said.
Initiated by President Harry Truman in 1952, intelligence briefings for presidential candidates are designed to ensure a smooth transition of power and prepare a potential commander-in-chief for office. Briefings are not required by law.
But Trump’s nomination creates an unprecedented situation for intelligence officials in their own experience. They accused Trump during his time in the White House the exposer mystery informationand he was indicted on federal criminal charges for allegedly storing many classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida after he left office.
Federal prosecutors say investigators found boxes of sensitive documents stored in various locations at Mar-a-Lago, including the bathroom, ballroom and her bedroom.
Former president who pleaded not guilty facing numerous chargesincluding willful withholding of national defense information, false statements and representations, conspiracy to obstruct justice, concealing a document or record, and corruptly concealing a document.
Trump and his lawyers have denied the charges, arguing that he should be immune from prosecution, given that he has a right to access the documents, that he destroyed the documents while he was president and that he, unlike other former officials, was selected for trial.
According to former intelligence officials, intelligence briefings for presidential candidates focus on national security threats and are typically not as detailed as those provided to sitting presidents or presidents-elect. Former officials said the briefings did not include classified documents or intelligence sources.
Larry Pfeiffer, former CIA chief of staff and now director of George Mason University’s Hayden Intelligence Center, said the briefings offered to presidential candidates “are not usually as highly classified as the president’s daily briefing.”
The purpose of the briefings is to ensure that the candidate is “informed enough not to say something stupid during the campaign that would compromise national security issues or diplomatic issues, or that could get the next president running.”
Former CIA director John Brennan agreed that the information given to candidates was limited. Brennan told MSNBC’s Nicole Wallace on Thursday: “I’m absolutely confident that my former intelligence colleagues will provide briefings that will do no harm to sources and methods in terms of providing information that Donald Trump could abuse.”
“But they’re going to provide some analytical reviews of some hot spots to tell Donald Trump what the assessments are at this point,” he said. sources and methods”.
Pfeiffer said ideally Trump should hold off on any classified briefings until the court case is resolved or he is re-elected, but that seems unlikely.
Shortly after taking office, Biden banned former presidents from receiving the intelligence briefings typically offered to them because of what he described as Trump’s reckless handling of sensitive information.
Last month, Biden was also charged with mishandling classified information by special counsel Robert Hur. But He found that there was free evidence was not strong enough to justify the charge.