Trump’s Pentagon reportedly withheld critical information from Biden’s team



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  • The Defense Ministry set up roadblocks for the new Biden administration during the transition process, Politico reported, citing several defense and transition officials.
  • The meetings were canceled, delayed or tightly controlled in a way that made it difficult for Biden’s team to obtain information on critical national security issues, including the distribution of vaccines, officials said. transition.
  • The Pentagon rebuffed claims that it had not properly fulfilled its transition obligations.
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The Pentagon’s transition has been uglier than previously known, Politico reported Wednesday, revealing that politicians appointed to the Defense Department had muzzled the generals and withheld critical information from the transition team. incoming administration.

Meetings on issues ranging from military operations in conflict areas to vaccines have been canceled, delayed or controlled in a way that made it difficult for Biden’s transition team to get the information they needed, said Politico reported, citing a number of Pentagon and transition officials. After his electoral defeat, President Donald Trump sacked his defense secretary and installed loyalists in top positions, a move unprecedented in the final weeks of an administration.

Led by these newly installed officials, the Pentagon is said to have limited the visibility of the transition team on activities in parts of the Middle East and Africa, special operations missions and Operation Warp Speed, among others. Officials said obstructing the provision of vaccine information could hamper distribution operations, and at a time when the virus is raging across America.

Information requests were returned “cleaned up” and stripped of a lot of key information, and meetings were reportedly closely monitored to prevent disclosure of certain information by “overseers” from the attorney general’s office.

A transition official told Politico they ran into a “very high-ranking” military official after a meeting that was not particularly helpful. “We were alone and he said to me: ‘I’m sorry I couldn’t tell you more, but I received very strict instructions,” recalls the transition manager.

Officials said White House appointments to the Pentagon were the main issues that led to an obstruction during the transition, a process meant to ensure the incoming administration can get started on day one on national security and human rights issues. defense.

“It is just irresponsible and indefensible,” another transition official told Politico. “To play politics with the national security of the country is simply unacceptable.”

Days after losing the presidential election in mid-November, the White House purged civilian leaders from the Pentagon, to include Defense Secretary and key policy and intelligence positions, and filled vacancies with people loyal to Trump.

The upheaval at the Pentagon was then expected to affect the transition, which got off to a late start as Trump challenged the election results.

In mid-December, Biden’s transition team publicly expressed concern about their access and briefings. Yohannes Abraham, a spokesperson for Biden’s transition, said at the time the team encountered “resistance” from political appointees in the Pentagon.

A few days later, then President-elect Joe Biden complained that “the Defense Department won’t even tell us about a lot.”

“At present, we are simply not getting all the information we need from the outgoing administration in key areas of national security,” he said in additional remarks at the end of December. “It is nothing less, in my opinion, of irresponsibility.”

The defense ministry has insisted it do its job on the transition.

As of Thursday, Biden’s transition team had received 277 responses to inquiries, and by Friday the team had met with more than 400 politicians and more than 180 career leaders at the Pentagon, Politico reported.

Some defense officials said the complaints from Biden’s transition team were “exaggerated” and that they “saw no effort to hide anything.”

A Pentagon spokesperson told Politico that “the staff of the transition team are not government employees and therefore limited to some extent to what they can receive,” explaining that being part of such a team “is not licensed to access confidential, privileged or classified government information.”

When Biden’s transition team first voiced concerns in December, Acting Defense Secretary Chris Miller said he was committed to fulfilling the ministry’s transition obligations. “This is what our nation expects and the DoD will do what it has always done,” he wrote in a statement.

Miller’s last day at the Pentagon was Wednesday and, according to Politico, the Biden administration denied him office space and resources to quit his role at the last minute.

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