'An insider threat': Conservative warns Trump shouldn't be given intelligence briefings

Former President Donald Trump would, as a matter of tradition, receive intelligence briefings on the campaign trail, now that he has effectively secured the nomination for the Republican Party.

But President Joe Biden should not allow this to happen, conservative analyst and former Naval War College professor Tom Nichols wrote for The Atlantic on Wednesday, because Trump is "an insider threat" to the country's security.

"The decision rests, as always, with the sitting president, and Joe Biden is likely to continue this practice so that he will not be accused of 'politicizing' access to intelligence," wrote Nichols. "Such accusations need not be taken seriously; they would only be more meaningless noise from a GOP that has already stumbled in a clumsy attempt to impeach Biden after leveling charges of corruption at both him and his son. And although denying Trump access to classified briefs would produce squawks and yowls from Republicans, it would also serve as a reminder that Trump cannot be trusted with classified information."

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Trump, after all, is indicted on Espionage Act charges for hoarding highly classified national defense information at his Mar-a-Lago resort — a case that special counsel Jack Smith is fighting to keep on track as a Trump-appointed judge, Aileen Cannon, appears to interfere in the proceedings.

"Government employees who hold clearances have to attend annual refresher courses about a variety of issues, including some pretty obvious stuff about not writing down passwords or taking money from a friendly Chinese businessman wearing an American baseball cap," wrote Nichols. "But one area of annual training is always about 'insider threats,' the people in your own organization who may pose risks to classified information. Federal workers are taken through a list of behaviors and characteristics that should trigger their concern enough to report the person involved, or at least initiate a talk with a supervisor. Trump checks almost every box on those lists."

"If the American people decide to allow Trump back into the White House, President Biden can’t do anything about it," Nichols concluded. "In the meantime, however, he can limit the damage by delaying Trump’s access to classified material for as long as possible."