Hillary Clinton to Receive 1st Classified Briefing of Campaign
— -- Hillary Clinton is expected to receive her first classified briefing as the Democratic Party’s presidential nominee this weekend at an FBI facility in White Plains, a New York City suburb, according to sources with knowledge of the plans.
This comes one week after her main rival, Donald Trump, received his first classified briefing as the Republican Party’s nominee.
Trump took two top advisers to his briefing: New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, a former Defense Intelligence Agency director who has become an outspoken and sometimes controversial supporter of Trump.
But Clinton may not take any advisers to her planned briefing Saturday at the FBI’s White Plains facility, which is a satellite office of the bureau’s New York field office, ABC News has learned.
Because of the sensitivity of the information discussed during presidential candidate briefings, the sessions must take place in locations with secure rooms, known as sensitive compartmented information facilities. The FBI's office in White Plains has such rooms.
The FBI’s satellite office in White Plains is the closest secure FBI facility to Clinton’s home in Chappaqua, New York.
Staffers from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence will be leading the briefing, which, as with Trump’s briefing last week, is expected to cover major threats and emerging concerns around the world.
It’s unclear why Clinton may not attend the briefing without advisers. Any attendees aside from the presidential candidate would have to hold the necessary security clearances.
Many of Clinton’s critics have questioned whether she should receive a classified briefing after what they say is the reckless way she handled sensitive information when she was secretary of state.
Some Republican lawmakers have said her use of a private email server — and what FBI Director James Comey called the "extremely careless" way she subsequently handled classified information — should prevent Clinton and some of her aides from obtaining security clearances. There's no evidence, however, to indicate that she knowingly sent or received classified information over the server, according to Comey.
DNI Director James Clapper and the White House recently said they have no qualms about briefing the Democratic and Republican presidential candidates, noting that providing the briefings is a tradition dating back more than 60 years.
"Ensuring a smooth transition to the next president is a top priority ... and that's important, in part, because of the significant threats around the world," White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters in Washington, D.C., last month.
He said U.S. intelligence officials "understand what steps are necessary to protect sensitive national security information, and the administration is confident that they can both provide relevant and sufficient briefings to the two major-party presidential candidates while also protecting sensitive national security information."
Clapper said there is no concern in the U.S. intelligence community about providing classified information to either of the presidential candidates, insisting, "It's not up to the administration and certainly not up to me personally to decide on the suitability of a presidential candidate."
"The American electorate is in the process of deciding the suitability of these two candidates to serve as commander in chief, and they will make that decision, to pick someone who will be cleared for everything," he said at the annual Aspen Security Forum in Colorado last month.
Each of the campaigns decides the location for the classified briefings, according to Clapper.
CNN first reported the timing and location of Clinton's expected Saturday briefing.
Clinton and Trump could each receive as many as three classified briefings before Election Day.
These briefings resemble the annual Worldwide Threat Assessment issued by the intelligence community, which releases an unclassified version each year. While some top-secret information could be discussed, the briefings will not include the nation's most sensitive secrets, particularly information on sources, methods and operations.
ABC News' Mark Crudele, Veronica Stracqualursi, Justin Fishel, Alex Mallin and Devin Dwyer contributed to this report.
