Washington – President Donald Trump announced Friday that he moved to “immediately” cut the access of former President Joe Biden to intelligence information.
“There is no need for Joe Biden to continue receiving access to classified information,” Trump wrote in a publication to Truth Social. “Therefore, we are immediately revoking the security authorizations of Joe Biden and stopping his daily intelligence reports.”
The Biden office did not provide a comment immediately on Friday night.
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Presidents do not have security authorizations. Rather, the intelligence community operates to provide the President material from all levels of classification.
The former presidents are traditionally allowed to receive intelligence reports if they are consulted on the events that occurred during their administration.
A month after the attack of January 6, 2021 against the Capitol, Biden said in an interview with CBS News that Trump should not receive intelligence reports, pointing out the “erratic behavior of Trump not related to the insurrection.” His comments came in response to a question about whether Trump should receive intelligence reports.
“I think there is no need for intelligence information sessions. What value is giving you intelligence information? Biden added. “What impact does it have at all, apart from the fact that I could slip and say something?”
Trump was accused in June 2023 in a case that accused him of mismanagement of classified material after leaving office. He declared himself innocent, and a Florida judge nominated by Trump then dismissed the case. During the Biden administration, the Department of Justice moved to appeal the judge’s decision, but the days in Trump’s second mandate, his administration withdrew the appeal, ending the case.
Trump referred to Biden’s comments, saying in Friday’s publication that Biden “established this precedent in 2021”.
Trump also cited a report by former special lawyer Robert Hur, who said in a 2024 report that Biden had “bad memory.”
Hur’s comments arrived in a report detailed their decision not to process Biden for their management of classified documents.
“We have also considered that, in the trial, Mr. Biden would probably be presented to a jury, as he did during our interview of his, as a comprehensive comprehensive man and well intentionally with a bad memory,” the report said.
Last month, Trump moved to revoke the security authorizations of 50 former intelligence officials, a measure that legal experts called unprecedented.
