The White House said Saturday (Feb. 6) that President Biden will defer to the intelligence team’s decision to decide whether to continue providing intelligence briefings to former President Trump.
In a White House statement, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said Biden trusts his intelligence team to decide whether to provide access to sensitive briefings.
“The president is concerned about former President Trump’s access to sensitive intelligence, but he also has deep confidence in his intelligence team to decide how to provide intelligence information any Time former President Trump requests a briefing,” Psaki said in the statement Saturday.
Before that, President Joe Biden said he did not believe Trump should continue to receive intelligence briefings.
Biden said on Friday, Feb. 5, that he did not think Trump “should be briefed” and said Trump needed to be blamed for the Jan. 6 congressional uproar. This is the latest comment from Biden ahead of the Senate impeachment case against Trump on Feb. 8.
Biden’s aides told The Washington Post that Biden is letting his intelligence officials decide the issue.
Under U.S. law, former presidents of the United States will receive intelligence briefings. Former presidents such as Carter, Clinton, Bush and Obama can still receive briefings on a regular basis. The move is said to allow them to continue to support national interests, make appropriate recommendations or participate in major decisions.
However, since February, Biden and his administration officials have said they are examining whether to remove Trump’s authority to receive intelligence briefings, calling the practice of letting Trump be briefed “threatening.
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