Trump granted access to president's secret intel
Catherine Herridge reports from Washington, D.C.
President-elect Donald Trump will now have access to the most authoritative and highly classified intelligence produced by the U.S. government, Fox News has learned.
Two intelligence sources confirmed that the President’s Daily Brief, or PDB, is now available to Trump – after the White House, before Tuesday’s election, had directed that the winner have full access to the material, to ensure a smooth transition.
The sources told Fox News they do not anticipate the briefings will begin until next week at the earliest.
The PDB is like a highly classified newspaper for the president, and now the president-elect. It is significantly different than the information provided in briefings for candidates; those briefings act as primers to help bring candidates up to speed on topics like China, Iran and the Islamic State.
Candidates have been free to request additional briefs on topics of personal interest, and those supplemental briefings were made available to the other candidate.
The PDB is a focused intelligence product, and has a very high threshold for intelligence to be included.
Fox News has also learned that, because the briefing itself must be done in a secure facility, the White House has a dedicated transition space nearby that can be used by the president-elect to receive the PDB.
If Trump were to receive the brief in New York City, the president-elect would need to travel to a secure federal facility, such as the FBI office.
While Trump prepares to be read in on top U.S. intelligence, he and his transition team are busy assembling potential candidates for key roles in the Trump administration. He tweeted Friday that he had a “busy day” planned in New York and would soon “be making some very important decisions on the people who will be running our government.”
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