Hillary Clinton to receive intelligence briefing Saturday: sources

By Mark Hosenball

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton is scheduled to receive a pre-election briefing from U.S. intelligence officials on Saturday, a source familiar with the matter said on Wednesday.

Clinton, a former secretary of state, will receive the briefing, an overview of foreign policy and international security issues facing the United States, from career officials in the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), the source said.

CNN reported that the briefing would be given to Clinton at the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s field office in White Plains, New York, not far from the Chappaqua, New York, residence she shares with her husband, former President Bill Clinton.

Representatives for relevant government agencies and Clinton’s presidential campaign had no immediate comment.

ODNI officials gave Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump his first intelligence briefing last week at the FBI’s Manhattan office. A source said that because Trump asked for his briefing to be broken up into more than one session, he is expected to meet again with intelligence briefers.

Questions have been raised about the extent to which either candidate should be trusted with national security secrets, given the controversies surrounding the private email server Clinton used for State Department business and Trump’s penchant for spontaneous comments and tweets.

Sources familiar with the content of the briefings said that while they contain information classified at the Top Secret level, they do not contain information about undercover espionage operations or U.S. intelligence sources and methods.

(Reporting By Mark Hosenball in Washington; Editing by John Walcott and Jonathan Oatis)