Classified intelligence briefings for Clinton, Trump could begin this week
Washington — The political conventions were laced with tales of foreign espionage and intrigue. Now, it’s time for the official spy work of the presidential campaign to begin.
As early as this week, Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton will start getting top-secret intelligence briefings from the national intelligence director’s office. This year, though, the more than 60-year-old tradition of providing presidential candidates classified briefings has prompted vicious backbiting between Democrats and Republicans about whether each other’s candidate can keep a secret.
Clinton supporters and some intelligence officials say the New York business magnate has loose lips and often shoots from the hip.
Trump backers point to Clinton’s use of a private email server and FBI Director James Comey’s rebuke of her “extremely careless” handling of classified information while she was secretary of state. Trump tweeted: “Hillary Clinton should not be given national security briefings in that she is a lose (loose) cannon with extraordinarily bad judgement (judgment) & insticts (instincts).”
In a letter to National Intelligence Director James Clapper, House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., said many questions remain about how Clinton handled her email and requested that she not get classified briefings for the rest of the campaign. Clapper rejected the request, saying, “I do not intend to withhold briefings from any officially nominated, eligible candidate.”
As secretary of State, Clinton held a high security clearance and received a copy of the President’s Daily Brief — the highest-level U.S. intelligence document, filled with sensitive intelligence and analysis from across the world. Trump, as a career businessman, has never held a government security clearance and is a novice when it comes to intelligence briefings.
The term top secret intelligence is thrown around a lot, but there is grave danger to U.S. national security if some of this information is disclosed, said David Priess, author of “The President’s Book of Secrets,” a history of the President’s Daily Brief.
“It could pertain to the ways of defending the United States that our adversaries don’t know,” he said. “Or it could pertain to what we know about foreign countries that they don’t know we know. So any time that there is someone who is not familiar with this, there is some anxiety.”