Donald Trump has begun receiving intelligence briefings as president-elect, just months after a federal judge dismissed criminal charges against him for allegedly mishandling classified information.
The Office of the Director of National Intelligence began providing briefings to the former president shortly after he won the election, according to U.S. officials who spoke to the Washington Post.
“ODNI is acting consistent with the tradition, in place since 1952, of providing intelligence briefings to the President-elect," the office said in a statement but did not comment specifically on the briefings.
Trump declined classified briefings before the election, saying he did not want to be accused of leaking classified secrets, and sources say he was "engaged" during briefings while president and asked about topics he heard about on television.
The former president was indicted in June 2023 with unlawful retention of classified information, a violation of the Espionage Act, after an August 2022 search of Mar-a-Lago, where FBI agents found a trove of sensitive materials the National Archives had ordered him to return after leaving the White House.
“As president I could have declassified it," Trump said, according to prosecutors. "Now I can’t, you know, but this is still a secret."
District judge Aileen Cannon dismissed the case in July after ruling that special counsel Jack Smith had been unlawfully appointed, but Trump's election win likely means prosecutors' appeal of that ruling won't go to the U.S. Supreme Court.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre declined earlier this month to say whether president Joe Biden was concerned about Trump receiving classified briefings during the transition.
“I’m not going to get into speculation from here,” she said.