Pentagon denies blocking Biden’s transition team

Initially, Biden’s transition team had improperly contacted the agencies instead of the DoD’s transition team, and were told they needed to submit requests to the Pentagon instead.

“It was more of an internal issue for Team Biden than a DoD issue,” the defense official said.

The issue has been resolved and meetings are now scheduled for Monday and Tuesday with the Defense Intelligence Agency, the National Reconnaissance Office, the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency and the National Security Agency, according to the DoD.

Previous press reports suggested Kash Patel, a Trump loyalist whom the White House recently installed as Miller’s chief of staff, was involved in the blocking of meetings.

But the senior defense official who briefed reporters rebuffed that characterization, saying Patel had delegated much of his responsibilities as transition leader to Tom Muir, the career civilian leader of the transition team. of the DoD.