White House press secretary Jen Psaki on Monday indicated former President Trump hasn’t asked for an intelligence briefing days after President Biden said he didn’t think his predecessor should receive one.
Psaki said intelligence officials will make any decision on whether former President Trump will receive intelligence briefings.
“He was expressing his concern about former President Trump receiving access to sensitive intelligence, but he also has deep trust in his own intelligence team to make a determination about how to provide intelligence information if at any point the former president requests a briefing,” Psaki said of Biden during her daily briefing with reporters from the White House on Monday.
“That is not currently applicable, but if he should request a briefing, he leaves it to them to make a determination,” Psaki continued.
Asked to clarify, Psaki later said that she was not aware of Trump requesting any briefings, but referred reporters to the Office of Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) for specific questions.
“The Intelligence Community has an established process for providing intelligence support to former U.S. Presidents, and we follow that process whenever a request is made,” an ODNI spokesman said, without providing further details on any such requests.
Psaki’s remarks seemed aimed at clarifying that Biden himself would not be making the decision on Trump’s access to intelligence. She gave a similar statement to The Washington Post over the weekend.
Biden told CBS in an interview Friday that he did not believe Trump should receive intelligence briefings, citing the former president’s “erratic behavior.”
Former presidents traditionally are given access to intelligence briefings when they leave office, but some have called for Trump to be cut off from intelligence, including Sue Gordon, a career intelligence official who served as principal deputy director of national intelligence during the Trump administration.
Biden said “I think not” when asked if Trump should continue to receive intelligence briefings after leaving office during the interview with “CBS Evening News” anchor Norah O’Donnell on Friday.
“I just think that there is no need for him to have the intelligence briefings. What value is giving him an intelligence briefing? What impact does he have at all, other than the fact he might slip and say something?” Biden said.
Psaki told reporters earlier last week that Trump’s access to intelligence briefings was under review.