President-elect Donald Trump is now receiving intelligence briefings after having declined them during his campaign, according to a source with knowledge of the matter and a former U.S. official.
The briefings from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) began shortly after the election, in keeping with a custom launched by President Harry Truman at the end of his tenure, the sources said.
“ODNI is acting consistent with the tradition, in place since 1952, of providing intelligence briefings to the President-elect,” an ODNI spokesperson said.
The office would not comment specifically on whether Trump was actually accepting the offer of the briefings.
The Washington Post first reported on the briefings.
A Trump transition team representative was not able to confirm that Trump had begun receiving the briefings. Before the election, Trump had said he did not want to get the intelligence briefings to avoid any chance he would be accused of leaking information.
In 1952, Truman ordered that intelligence briefings be made available to presidential nominees and presidents-elect to ensure a smooth transition of power and to prepare a prospective commander in chief for office. The briefings are not required by law.
When he was elected in 2016, Trump presented the intelligence community with a difficult challenge as he had publicly castigated the work and the integrity of spy agencies.
This time, the president-elect returns to the White House having been accused of revealing secret information to foreign representatives and having been 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 said investigators found boxes of sensitive documents stored in various parts of Mar-a-Lago, including in a bathroom, a ballroom and his bedroom. Trump pleaded not guilty and denied any wrongdoing, with his lawyers saying he had a right to possess the documents. The charges are expected to be dropped following his election victory this month.
Trump has vowed to purge the intelligence agencies of perceived “corrupt” or anti-democratic elements.
“We will clean out all of the corrupt actors in our national security and intelligence apparatus, and there are plenty of them,” Trump said during the campaign. “The departments and agencies that have been weaponized will be completely overhauled.”
