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Receiving a classified intelligence briefing is usually one of the first rights of a presidential candidate after winning the election. It contains information on the urgent national security issues that the new president will soon face. But Biden has yet to receive an intelligence briefing due to Trump’s efforts to overturn the election results, causing confusion within the federal government over the possibility of starting a transition.
The PDB, as it is called, is prepared by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence for the president, vice president, and senior advisers.
An ODNI official attributed the change directly to the White House’s decision to formally grant Biden access to the PDB. CNN previously reported that the decision rested with Trump and that access to the PDB could have been granted before the GSA administrator formalized the transition on Monday.
ODNI, which is overseen by Trump’s hand-picked intelligence chief John Ratcliffe, previously referred all questions about Biden and the PDB to the White House, pointing to the fact that the decision regarding Biden’s access to secrets most confidential in the country belonged to Trump.
“Following the statutory directive of the presidential transition law, the ODNI will provide the requested support to the transition team,” an ODNI spokesperson told CNN on Tuesday. “This afternoon, the White House approved ODNI to move forward providing PDB as part of transition support.”
A Biden transition official told CNN he had no comment on the decision to give the president-elect a confidential briefing. Biden declined to answer a shouted question about the status of the briefings as he presented his top national security picks on Tuesday.
The ODNI official said this transition period could include providing an overview of the agency and related operations in addition to supporting the delivery of intelligence briefings.
The PDB is often adapted to the current president. President George W. Bush preferred to be briefed orally by his key intelligence aides, while President Barack Obama often read his on a secure tablet. Trump would often receive his late morning with career intelligence officials, though at times it was completely gone from his schedule.
Over the past three weeks, Trump has sought to overturn the results of an election his own administration has described as the safest in U.S. history, before firing the official who made the statement. In recent days, more and more Republicans have come out to urge Trump to allow Biden to receive confidential information, including his longtime ally in South Carolina, Senator Lindsey Graham.
This story has been updated with additional reports.
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