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Donald Trump says he’ll deny former president Joe Biden any entry to labeled data and courtesy briefings in an act of revenge in opposition to his predecessor.
In a submit on his Fact Social platform, Trump stated he was “immediately revoking Joe Biden’s Security Clearances and stopping his daily Intelligence Briefings.” This adopted a precedent Biden had set 4 years earlier when he instructed U.S. intelligence officers to halt any briefings with Trump, citing the then-former president’s “erratic behavior” after his 2020 election loss.
As elected officers, presidents don’t maintain safety clearances however have historically been given courtesy briefings on an as-needed foundation, resembling when touring overseas or when assembly with overseas authorities officers.
It’s unclear whether or not Biden has requested or obtained any such briefings since he left workplace final month.
Trump additionally claimed that former particular counsel Robert Hur’s report on Biden’s possession of labeled paperwork courting again to his time as a senator and vice chairman knowledgeable his determination.
In a misstatement of what Hur had truly written, Trump claimed that the previous prosecutor “revealed that Biden suffers from ‘poor memory’ and “could not be trusted with sensitive information.”
First woman Jill Biden and U.S. President Joe Biden welcome U.S. President-elect Donald Trump and Melania Trump to the White Home forward of inauguration ceremonies on January 20, 2025 in Washington, DC (Getty Photographs)
Trump was referring to a piece of Hur’s report wherein the then-special counsel stated he wouldn’t cost Biden with willfully retaining nationwide protection data — the identical cost Trump confronted after lots of of labeled paperwork have been discovered at his Mar-a-Lago residents throughout an August 2022 search — as a result of it was unlikely {that a} jury would have convicted him.
Hur wrote that Biden’s attorneys may have simply introduced him as a “well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory” and in doing so would have obtained an acquittal at trial.
Trump, who was charged with willful retention of nationwide protection data, conspiracy and obstruction of justice however was returned to workplace by voters earlier than the case may go to trial, additional wrote that he would “always protect our National Security,” earlier than including: “JOE, YOU’RE FIRED. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”
A spokesperson for former president Biden declined to remark when requested about Trump’s declare to have revoked a safety clearance that by no means existed within the first place.
