Adam Schiff Hopes Officials Will ‘Dumb Down’ Intelligence Briefings For Trump

On Mar 11, 2024

Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), the previous chair of the House intelligence committee, on Sunday stated he expects U.S. officers to “dumb down” any intelligence briefings supplied to former President Donald Trump as a part of a long-standing custom prolonged to presidential nominees.

Candidates who earn their events’ presidential nomination have been cleared to obtain intelligence briefings to make sure a clean transition of energy, no matter who wins the final election. But the customary briefings, which have been going down since 1952, should not legally required.

Trump is predicted to obtain intelligence briefings if and when he formally secures the GOP nomination, officers have stated ― despite the legal expenses he faces, together with for allegedly mishandling categorized, top-secret paperwork.

Speaking to NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Schiff stated that whereas that is normal follow, the previous president’s observe document does concern him. Schiff argued that the U.S. has by no means had a presidential candidate who has been as “criminally negligent” in dealing with categorized data as Trump.

He added that he expects officers to take that into consideration after they sit down with Trump.

“I have to hope, and knowing the intelligence community as I do, that they will dumb down the briefing for Donald Trump,” Schiff stated. “That is, they will give him no more information than absolutely necessary. Nothing that would reveal sources or methods. Because we can’t trust that he will do the right thing with that information ― he’s been so reckless.”

“They will be wary of what they share with him, and they should,” Schiff continued.

According to Politico, the briefings undergo the Office of the Director of National Intelligence following approval by the White House.

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Still, John Bolton, who as soon as served as Trump’s nationwide safety adviser, stated he was “perplexed” that the Biden administration is agreeing to supply Trump with the sort of data.

“I don’t think it makes any sense, and I think it really puts whatever he is told at risk of being disclosed,” Bolton instructed MSNBC’s Katy Tur on Friday.

Separately, following the 2020 election, President Joe Biden denied Trump the courtesy sometimes afforded to former presidents of receiving intelligence briefings, citing his “erratic behavior.”

“What value is giving him an intelligence briefing?” Biden requested in an interview with CBS’s Norah O’Donnell in February 2021. “What impact does he have at all, other than the fact he might slip and say something?”

Trump faces a complete of 91 legal expenses for allegedly falsifying enterprise information to cover a hush cash fee to porn star Stormy Daniels, making an attempt to overturn the 2020 presidential election, making an attempt the undo the election leads to Georgia and mishandling categorized paperwork.

Schiff, a member of the now-defunct House choose committee probing the Jan. 6, 2021 rebel, was one in every of two candidates to advance to a runoff election for the seat of the late Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D).