Rep. Adam Schiff is calling for President Trump to permanently lose his access to intelligence briefings, accusing the president of politicizing the privilege.
The California Democrat told CBS’s Face the Nation host Margaret Brennan on Sunday that Trump’s ability to be briefed presents a national security risk to the country. Schiff said he would urge the incoming Biden administration to deny Trump future access to U.S. intelligence. Typically, former presidents are allowed routine intelligence briefings and continue to have access to classified information.
“There is no circumstance in which this president should get another intelligence briefing, not now, not in the future,” said Schiff, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee. “I don’t think he can be trusted with it now, and in the future, he certainly can’t be trusted. We’ve seen this president politicize intelligence, and that’s another risk to the country.”
Schiff has long been an open critic of Trump and was one of the leading House prosecutor’s in the president’s first impeachment trial. Schiff also led his committee’s investigation over whether Trump colluded with Russia in his 2016 campaign.
Schiff’s comments follow an op-ed in the Washington Post penned by Sue Gordon, formerly the second-highest-ranking official in the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, that called for Trump to lose his privilege of receiving intelligence briefings.
“My recommendation, as a 30-plus-year veteran of the intelligence community, is not to provide (Trump) any briefings after Jan. 20,” Gordon wrote. “With this simple act — which is solely the new president’s prerogative — Joe Biden can mitigate one aspect of the potential national security risk posed by Donald Trump, private citizen.”
Gordon, who resigned in 2019, said she isn’t pushing for Trump to lose his access over personal grievances but from her experience working in intelligence.
“I do not make this recommendation casually,” Gordon said. “It is based on my deep understanding of threats to national security, on decades protecting our people and interests overseas, and my experience deploying technical means to counter our adversaries.”
Trump will leave office on Wednesday and will be succeeded by President-elect Joe Biden. He will depart Washington, D.C., for his adopted home state of Florida prior to the inauguration event.
