Schiff says he hopes Intelligence Community ‘will dumb down’ briefings for Trump

Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) said the U.S. Intelligence Community should “dumb down” briefings for former President Trump when he receives classified information as the eventual GOP nominee, voicing concerns about whether Trump could share the information.

Schiff hit Trump on his criminal charges for mishandling classified information and other legal cases in an NBC “Meet the Press” interview Sunday.

“We’ve never had a situation where one of the candidates for president has been so criminally negligent when it comes to handling — if not worse — classified information,” Schiff said. “So I have to hope, and knowing the Intelligence Community as I do, that they will dumb down the briefing for Donald Trump.”

“That is, they will give him no more information than absolutely necessary. Nothing that would reveal sources or methods,” he continued. “Because we can’t trust that he will do the right thing with that information, he’s been so reckless.” 

Trump’s federal criminal case in Florida alleges that he took boxes of classified documents from the White House with him to his South Florida home and misled federal investigators when they came looking for them.

Schiff, who is running for Senate in California and was a major figure in the former president’s impeachment, said giving Trump access to information concerns him.

“It is part of a long tradition,” he said. The Intelligence Community “will be wary of what they share with him, and they should.”