Biden Needs To Make Important Decision About Sharing Transcripts Of Presidential Calls With Foreign Leaders
President-elect Joe Biden and his team will soon need to make an important decision. The incoming administration will have to choose between sharing transcripts of presidential calls with foreign leaders to an extensive, security clearance-holding group or keep the official transcripts of the calls and other sensitive information enforced by the Trump administration under wraps citing a possibility that they might be leaked.
Bidens team will be offered access to a secret server that comprises sensitive details about President Donald Trump's controversial discussions with foreign leaders on a need-to-know basis, a senior US official told CNN. The Trump administration has agreed to share any information they consider important to facilitate the future decision-making process.
The incoming administration will be leaving no stone unturned in a bid to be as transparent as possible. It is worth noting there have been major changes since many of Trump's appointees were in the White House. Some officials are raising concerns over leaks and urging caution to assess the limitations of sharing sensitive information citing Washington's politically charged environment following the presidential election.
White House officials have raised concerns about Trump's transcript leaking as it could be politically damaging. Republican political adviser Timothy Morrison asked lawyers if the transcript of President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky should be guarded closely after admitting that it was mistakenly put on the server, The Wall Street Journal reported back in Nov. last year.
Repeated leaks of controversial remarks made by the president with leaders of Australia and Mexico during the early days of Trump taking office due to unrestricted record-distribution policy, some officials admitted to CNN. Following this criticism, officials were forced to use a secret server to keep records of calls involving Ukraine, Russia, and Saudi Arabia.
When H.R. McMaster was picked as the president's second national security adviser in Feb. 2017, officials said the distribution lists got smaller. However, some individuals could still access records from the National Security Council's traditional computer portal, which had everything except CIA operational information. During an Atlantic Council FrontPage event in Nov., McMaster spoke to CNN National Security Correspondent Vivian Salama warned Biden's incoming administration to not fall for China's attempt to show that it is willing to engage with the U.S. on various international issues.
White House officials have restricted the number of individuals who have access to listening to Trump's calls. Aside from that, officials have limited the number of people who could access the records after those calls ended.