The Trump administration has abruptly halted defense briefings for Joe Biden’s transition team, according to a report from Axios, in a move that is said to have shocked Pentagon officials.
Acting Defense Secretary Chris Miller reportedly sent out a Pentagon-wide directive Thursday night ordering officials not to cooperate with the president-elect’s camp and to cancel all scheduled meetings.
The officials who shared the directive with Axios said Miller hadn’t explained his reasoning and it wasn’t clear whether President Trump had given his explicit approval for the decision.
A senior Defense Department official told Axios that the move was just “a simple delay of the last few scheduled meetings until after the new year.”
Miller disputed Axios’ report in a statement, insisting that no interviews had been canceled or declined but some were being rescheduled to the new year.
He said there had been a “mutually-agreed upon holiday pause, which begins tomorrow” and, in the intervening weeks, the focus would be on essential requests for information on Operation Warp Speed and COVID-19.
