Trump okays intelligence briefing for Biden

President-elect Joe Biden to be briefed on the president’s regular classified intelligence, a reliable source at the White House said on Tuesday.

The decision by the outgoing US President Trump to allow intelligence briefing for the incoming President, means Biden will be given information on the latest and classified intelligence reports on national security threats around the world. This is a mark departure from the earlier grandstanding by Trump, who insisted that he won the recently concluded election.

It could be recalled that Biden told reporters in Wilmington, Delaware, that he has not had an intelligence briefing but that it had been offered.

On Monday, the General Services Administration, the federal agency that must sign off on presidential transitions, told Biden he could formally begin the hand-over process.

GSA Administrator Emily Murphy said that Biden would get access to resources that had been denied to him because of the legal challenges seeking to overturn his win.

An official at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence said: “Following the statutory direction of the Presidential Transition Act, ODNI will provide requested support to the transition team.”

“This afternoon the White House approved ODNI to move forward with providing the PDB (president’s daily brief) as part of the support to the transition,” the official said.