According to a former U.S. official with knowledge of the situation, President-elect Donald Trump is again receiving intelligence briefings after turning them down during his campaign.
According to the sources, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) started providing briefings soon after the election, following a tradition started by President Harry Truman near the end of his administration.
Regarding whether Trump was now accepting the offer of the briefings, the ODNI did not answer.
According to an ODNI official, the agency is following the custom of giving the president-elect intelligence briefings, which has been in place since 1952.
The briefings were first covered by The Washington Post.
The fact that Trump had started getting the briefings could not be verified by a member of the Trump transition team. In order to prevent any possibility of being accused of information leakage, Trump had stated prior to the election that he did not want to get the intelligence briefings.
To guarantee a seamless handover of power and to get a potential commander in chief ready for duty, President Truman mandated intelligence briefings for presidential contenders and presidents-elect in 1952. The legislation does not mandate the briefings.
Trump’s outspoken criticism of the work and integrity of espionage organizations when he was elected in 2016 posed a challenging task for the intelligence community.
This time, the president-elect returns to the White House after being charged with federal crimes for allegedly keeping a cache of sensitive materials at his Mar-a-Lago home in Florida after leaving office, and after being accused of disclosing secret information to foreign officials.
Investigators discovered boxes of confidential information in a ballroom, a restroom, and his bedroom, according to federal prosecutors. Trump denied any misconduct and entered a not guilty plea; his attorneys argued that he was entitled to the records. After he won the election this month, the charges are anticipated to be withdrawn.
Trump has pledged to rid the intelligence services of anybody he believes to be anti-democratic or corrupt.
During the campaign, Trump declared, “We will purge our national security and intelligence apparatus of all corrupt actors, and there are many of them.” There will be a total revamp of the weaponized departments and agencies.
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