Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) called on the intelligence community to “dumb down” classified briefings for Donald Trump ahead of his official nomination as the Republican 2024 presidential candidate.
In an interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press” Sunday, Schiff cited special counsel Jack Smith’s case against Trump over his retention of classified documents as the excuse to withhold information from the former president in the future.
“We’ve never had a situation where one of the candidates for president has been so criminally negligent when it comes to handling — if not worse — classified information,” Schiff said. “So I have to hope, and knowing the Intelligence Community as I do, that they will dumb down the briefing for Donald Trump.”
Adam Schiff Calls for Withholding Classified Information from Donald Trump When He is Nominated for President
“We’ve never had a situation where one of the candidates for president has been so criminally negligent when it comes to handling — if not worse — when it comes to… pic.twitter.com/ttahihHY8x
— Kyle Becker (@kylenabecker) March 10, 2024
“That is, they will give him no more information than absolutely necessary. Nothing that would reveal sources or methods,” he continued. “Because we can’t trust that he will do the right thing with that information, he’s been so reckless.”
Schiff, a key figure in the Russia collusion hoax who’s running for Senate in California, said Trump’s access to classified information worries him.
“It is part of a long tradition,” Schiff said. The Intelligence Community “will be wary of what they share with him, and they should.”
Former Deep State figures like ex-CIA Director John Brennan and ex-National Security Adviser John Bolton likewise called for limits to what information Trump receives at the anticipated intelligence briefings traditionally afforded to presidential nominees.
“I’m pretty certain that my former intelligence colleagues will provide briefings that are not going to do any type of damage to source and methods in terms of providing information to Donald Trump that he could misuse,” Brennan claimed last week.
WOAH. John Brennan just implied the intel community will withhold key information from Trump’s security briefings once he accepts the Republican nomination this summer, citing his “misuse” of classified info
Republicans need to stop this before it turns into Russiagate 2.0 pic.twitter.com/4jrnd8LoFS
— johnny maga (@_johnnymaga) March 7, 2024
Bolton said on MSNBC, “I don’t think it makes any sense. I think it, really, puts whatever he is told at risk of being disclosed.”
Trump’s federal criminal case in Florida alleges that he illegally took boxes of classified documents from the White House with him to Mar-a-Lago and misled NARA investigators about their whereabouts.
Trump claims he was well within his authority as president to retain certain classified materials and regularly communicated with the National Archives and Records Administration over his possession of them.
Watch the full Schiff interview:
