The outgoing administration of Donald Trump is refusing to permit members of President-elect Joe Biden's transition team to meet with officials at Pentagon-controlled U.S. intelligence agencies. The weird sabotage undermines the odds of a smooth transfer of power, current and former U.S. officials told Greg Miller and Missy Ryan at the Washington Post:
The impasse has prevented the Biden team from engaging with leaders at the National Security Agency, the Defense Intelligence Agency and other military-run spy services with classified budgets and global espionage platforms.
The Defense Department rejected requests from the Biden team this week, officials said, despite a General Services Administration decision Nov. 23 that cleared the way for federal agencies to meet with representatives of the incoming administration.
The rejections came even as Biden advisers spent much of this week meeting with officials at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the CIA, agencies that are part of the U.S. intelligence community but independent of the Defense Department.
Read more at The Washington Post: Pentagon blocks visits to military spy agencies by Biden transition team
