DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Palus Politicus Trump to get intelligence briefings despite classified documents criminal trial

The former president, who has pleaded not guilty, faces multiple charges, including willful retention of national defense information and corruptly concealing a document.

U.S. intelligence agencies plan to provide briefings to former President Donald Trump this year if he secures the Republican presidential nomination, even though he faces federal criminal charges that he mishandled classified information after he left office.

The intelligence community is likely to adhere to past practices for nominees and has no plan to cancel the briefings if Trump becomes the GOP nominee, two sources with knowledge of the matter said. Scrapping the briefings for Trump could open President Joe Biden up to accusations of politicizing access to intelligence, one of the sources said.

Launched by President Harry Truman in 1952, intelligence briefings for presidential nominees are designed to ensure a smooth transition of power and to prepare a prospective commander in chief for office. The briefings are not required by law.

But Trump’s candidacy poses an unprecedented circumstance for intelligence officials due to his track record. During his time in the White House, Trump was accused of revealing secret information, and he was indicted on federal criminal charges for allegedly retaining a trove of 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 parts of Mar-a-Lago, including in a bathroom, a ballroom and his bedroom.

The former president, who has pleaded not guilty, faces multiple charges, including willful retention of national defense information, false statements and representations, conspiracy to obstruct justice, withholding a document or record, and corruptly concealing a document.

Trump and his lawyers have rejected the charges, arguing that he had a right to possess the documents, that he should be immune from prosecution because he removed the papers while he was president and that he is being singled out for prosecution unlike other former officeholders.

Intelligence briefings to presidential nominees focus on national security threats and are typically not as detailed as those provided to sitting presidents or presidents-elect, according to former intelligence officials. The briefings do not include classified documents or information related to intelligence sources, the former officials said.

Trump’s former national security adviser, John Bolton, said it would be a mistake to provide intelligence briefings to the former president.

“No prior presidential candidate has ever been under indictment for compromising classified information. That alone is reason to withhold intelligence briefings. There is no legitimate argument that denying the briefings would impair Trump’s campaign — he doesn’t understand what they would brief anyway,” Bolton said.

He added that if the White House does decide to provide briefings, “they should only be to Trump, alone, with no aides. That way, any leaks would by definition be from Trump himself.”

Larry Pfeiffer, a former chief of staff at the CIA and now the director of the Hayden Center for Intelligence at George Mason University, said the briefings offered to presidential candidates are “usually not as highly classified as the president’s daily briefing.”

The briefings are aimed to keep a candidate “informed enough to not say something stupid during the campaign that would upset national security issues or diplomatic issues or potentially box in a future president,” Pfeiffer said.

Former CIA Director John Brennan agreed that the information provided to nominees is limited. “I’m pretty certain my former intelligence colleagues will provide briefings that are not going to do any type of damage to sources and methods in terms of providing information to Donald Trump that he could misuse,” Brennan told MSNBC’s Nicole Wallace on Thursday.

“But they will provide analytic overviews about some of the hot spots letting Donald Trump know what the assessments are at this point," said Brennan, who served under President Barack Obama. "I think it’s going to be analysis that will be devoid of the sources and methods.”

Pfeiffer said that, ideally, Trump should decline any classified briefings until his court case is resolved or if he is re-elected, but that appears unlikely.

Biden, soon after he entered office, prohibited Trump from receiving intelligence briefings that are usually offered to former presidents because of what he described as Trump’s cavalier handling of sensitive information.

Last month, Biden was accused by special counsel Robert Hur of mishandling classified information, as well. But Hur found that the evidence wasn’t strong enough to justify a prosecution.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/tr...f_dqs-4Sl1jsieWuJwB6koTJbF8E7LBeJyYH1yO8

Good luck with the part in bold print.

Gotta love our country-- the Donald is about to be tried for criminal storage of classified material WWWWAAAAYYY higher than any briefing he'd get as a Potential next President---just can't understand how folks think he's a competent leader-- he changes wives like he does his political parties---wiki- Trump's political party affiliation has changed numerous times. He registered as a Republican in 1987;[143] a member of the Independence Party, the New York state affiliate of the Reform Party, in 1999;[144] a Democrat in 2001; a Republican in 2009; unaffiliated in 2011; and a Republican in 2012- he's set a record with the Republican party.

Gotha love a leader who shows loyalty to those he loves (wives) and his undying love for GOP- until he leaves for Russia instead of serving time.

Gotta love it.

Honestly, I'd not give him anything other than disinformation so we could trace where it goes.

Sooo... you guys DON'T want the possible president to be made aware of intelligence briefings, and you're not in favor of a smooth transition... because TRUMP.

Can't make it up!

Well, that's not the reason I wouldn't want Trump to have security briefings. It's because of his total lack of control of the information he would receive. Would you trust someone that took hundreds of boxes of confidential, secret and top secret documents to his home after LOSING the election? And don't give me any crap about Biden and Pence doing it. Both have shown clearly that was in error and once confronted, they willing turned everything back over. Trump did no such thing. In fact he's still trying to fight this saying he was allowed to take this information Trump is a traitor and if given data he can use and/or sell, I'm convinced he'd do it.

I'll put it this way, if a man was indicted for pedophilia I wouldn't want him to be given the job of running a day care until we find out if he's guilty. Maybe give him a blow up doll. But then people would raise hell if we gave him one of those.

M I C K E Y M O U S E

D O N A L D D U C K

Biden stores his information in a box next to his Corvette. So, there is that.

Yes, I'm sure that makes it the same as having boxes upon boxes of top secret documents stacked up in a bathroom at a resort where hundreds of people go to. I'm sure that makes it the same as defying a subpoena to turn over the documents.

And then there's this............

Trump showed off secret documents at Mar-a-Lago dining room, ex-aide claims: ‘He has no respect for classified information’

https://nypost.com/2023/07/03/stephanie-grisham-says-donald-trump-flaunted-classified-documents/

And this......

Trump allegedly discussed US nuclear subs with foreign national after leaving White House: Sources

Trump allegedly discussed the information with an Australian billionaire.

https://abcnews.go.com/US/after-whi...potentially-sensitive/story?id=103760456

Honestly, yes. This is another topic that hits close to home for me, and I also raged at Hillary when the e-mail poop hit the fan.

The guy was indicted in relation to his ability or lack thereof to safeguard classified material. If I were to walk out of a room with certain papers, even by accident, and it was discovered, I’d be spread Eagle on the ground with several assault rifles pointing at me. I might even have to show up in court shortly thereafter with a much more abbreviated timeline for a criminal trial. I would also NEVER be permitted to have access again and my clearance would be revoked.

Honestly, though, given all the indisputable facts that surround his case and what he did with the documents at MaL, I think it would be better to balance the scales and not give him the briefings until a lame duck period IF he wins the actual election.

This is not Mickey Mouse stuff either, Peen. I don’t know if you’ve ever been in a classified environment before, but the classification levels signify that violations have the potential to cause grave and serious harm if disclosed or improperly maintained. With the classification levels that were on the papers of the documents in that photo are accurate, which I believe they are, he could very likely have caused - and probably did - some serious ish. Problem is that we’re never going to hear about it on the back end because they need to maintain and preserve whatever level of classification is left, so that people can say things like “MICKEY MOUSE” and then go vote for a guy who got spies or troops killed, or gave away nuclear information or something else crazy because he wanted to keep stuff at his resort.

lol yep. it's only been 20+ years since it was still a part of the Brown's chat

Pretty sure it's not because he's Trump. It's because he's a security risk. That fact that he is also Trump certainly doesn't help matters.

It’s insanity to give that traitor more access to intel. Biden should order that stopped until after the election. Unless he wins, he doesn’t need to know.

Again, trying to compare the two situations is insane. As I've already said, Biden and Pence both had sensitive information. Both, when confronted turned it all over to the authorities. Neither of them yelled and screamed like a little kid. So far, both have been cleared. Although the house committee led by Gym Jordan is interviewing the guy that investigated Biden, but not the guy that investigated Pence..

SO, clearly, you have NO idea what you are talking about.

I do understand the emotional response to thinking Trump is a security risk - and hell, maybe there is some validity to it. But as you pointed out - he's as likely to be the next POTUS as he is not, normal process of transition of power needs to remain in place. Simple as that.

I do get that I probably have some emotion tied to my response as it, again, hits closer to home with me on this subject.

I do think there is a lot of objective rationale to be concerned here, though. What happened was a pretty flagrant violation. We all saw the pictures. Anyone, probably up through the SecDef would immediately lose their security clearance upon that discovery and likely kicked from their role.

Trump's situation is unique because I feel objectively confident that he would fail a security clearance under any normal circumstances, and that's just at the Secret level, let alone at the levels POTUS gets cleared to. The issue comes with him being elected. There has never been a President who was in a situation of willfully taking materials from that high of a classification, moving them to a private residence, and then repeatedly refusing to give them back, while also being caught on tape showing them to people and bragging about it.

There are a couple months between the election and the swearing in. When you balance the concerns and the history of what he's done, I think it would be reasonable to wait until the election results at least to begin briefing him. Those issues would be actively managed by the sitting administration and that gives enough ramp-up time. As a further compromise, I would even say that he could offer up his prospective cabinet personnel or VP to be cleared to those programs even before the election results are in, because, let's be honest, whether it's Trump or Biden, the people in charge of DoD, NSA, etc. are going to be the ones who are actually doing the work, while Trump or Biden will respectively be watching Fox & Friends or napping.

That last part is a joke, but I'm honestly gravely concerned about his history in this case. Again, unprecedented. I grow more concerned at what information he could have already divulged to adversaries and/or what he might do with that information he would obtain this time around if he loses the election. Especially if he loses the lection and also ends up with a prison sentence.

I think the "You only say that because it's trump" BS some have said is a cop out and way to skirt around his treatment of classified documents and actually having and discussing one such document over dinner. The man was so obsessed with keeping those documents that he defied a subpoena and they actually negotiated with him for months to try and get them back up to the point they had to issue a search warrant to retrieve them. He had boxes upon boxes of them stacked up in a bathroom at a resort for God's sake.

It seems to be a part of their playbook to be in denial of anything and everything he's done by trying to blame the people that point these things out. Somehow they think that makes refusing to take accountability for his actions by blaming everyone else okay. It's a very sad state of affairs.

Yeah, I think "Because Trump" is a legitimate answer sometimes. This is one of those times.

I more liken it to "Because of what trump has done".