U.S. Director of National Intelligence Richard Grenell denied media reports Tuesday that President Donald Trump received briefings warning about the coronavirus threat as early as January.
The denial comes after a Monday report from the Washington Post in which unnamed officials said Trump has little regard for his daily intelligence briefings, despite the briefings apparently raising “the prospect of dire political and economic consequences,” of the virus, according to WaPo. Grenell’s office said the article was “not true,” the Post itself described the president’s briefings as “fragmentary.”
“The preliminary intelligence on the coronavirus was fragmentary, and did not address the prospects of a severe outbreak in the United States,” the Post wrote. (RELATED: Georgia Democrat Becomes First To Endorse Trump, Credits His Work For Black Community)
Grenell also took to Twitter to contest the article’s legitimacy.
This isn’t true. And we told you this before you wrote. And you put the DNI denial of your premise in paragraph 9. https://t.co/kVYJvGxL0r
— Richard Grenell (@RichardGrenell) April 28, 2020
Vanity Fair is now repeating the false Washington Post narrative. As we have said multiple times, this story is not true. https://t.co/0h0jbwiulo
— Richard Grenell (@RichardGrenell) April 28, 2020
The Trump administration has long suffered leaks from within the intelligence community, with leakers contributing in large part to both the Trump-Russia and Trump-Ukraine scandals. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer warned Trump early in his time in office not to make enemies within the intelligence community.
“Let me tell you: You take on the intelligence community — they have six ways from Sunday at getting back at you,” he said on MSNBC in 2017. (RELATED: ‘It’s Time For Congress to Get Back To Work’ — Kevin McCarthy Writes Letter To Pelosi Detailing How To Reopen Congress)
“He’s being really dumb to do this.” -Senator Schumer on Trump taunting US intelligence agencies https://t.co/QbGSmx9Xvp
— Maddow Blog (@MaddowBlog) January 4, 2017
Trump has held near-daily press briefings on the coronavirus since late February, and his administration predicts that “much” of the pandemic will be behind us by early summer.