WASHINGTON – An experienced CIA analyst who led President Biden’s personal briefings during the opening days of the government is no longer doing so, intelligence officials said Saturday.
The briefer’s duties typically include coordinating the work between 18 intelligence agencies, in what is known as mission integration, and overseeing the compilation of the intelligence written document delivered to the White House each day. Unlike previous administrations, the task of conducting the personal briefing will be different from the other responsibilities and divided among different people.
Veteran analyst, Morgan Muir, is still about to take over as director of mission integration, a top position in the office of the director of national intelligence, succeeding Beth Sanner, who was the lead briefer for president Donald J. Trump. As director of mission integration, Mr. Muir will compile what is known as the President’s Daily Brief, or PDB, from various reports from the intelligence community, but he will no longer lead the personal briefings.
In his new role, Mr. Muir will oversee the agency’s efforts to integrate intelligence community activities “from collection to analysis, including the inter-agency PDB process,” said Amanda J. Schoch, spokeswoman for the Office of the Director of the National Intelligence Service.
Mr. Muir’s appointment as Mr. Biden’s briefer last month was unusual as it was his second tour of that job, the only time anyone had returned to the post under new administration. He had served as one of George W. Bush’s briefers halfway through his presidency.
Former presidents also continue to receive briefings, although they are different from the secret ones a sitting president receives daily. Still, it is offered partly out of courtesy and partly for the occasions when a sitting president asks for advice. The team of CIA analysts that would inform a former president is not the same team that would inform a current president.
The question of whether Mr. Trump should continue to receive briefings has been raised in recent days. Friday, Mr. Biden told CBS that it was “unnecessary” for the former president to receive briefings, citing his “erratic” behavior. But a day later, the White House clarified those comments.
The president expressed concern that former President Trump would have access to sensitive information, Jen Psaki, the White House press secretary, said in a statement, but he also has deep confidence in his own intelligence agency to How to provide intelligence if former President Trump requests a briefing at any point. “
On Saturday night, the White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment clarifying whether or not Mr. Trump had requested briefings.
The New York Times previously reported that Mr. Muir would become the lead briefer, but at the time intelligence officials said that National Intelligence Director Avril D. Haines was still determining the final format of the briefing sessions and that additional briefers would work with Mr. Biden. Officials also said at the time that there was no final decision on whether or not to split briefing duties from the broader responsibilities of the director of mission integration.
Some officials at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence have long pushed for those duties to be delegated to different people.
But in recent days, Ms. Haines has decided to bring in a series of expert briefers to lead the sessions at the Oval Office, Ms. Schoch said. Mrs. Haines continues to participate in those meetings.
On Saturday, BuzzFeed News reported that in 2013, Mr. Muir, then a senior CIA analyst, led a delegation from the bureau in tense talks with Senate Intelligence Committee officials over what would become the report on the bureau’s torture program. The article quoted Daniel J. Jones, one of the committee’s senior staff at the time, as saying that Mr. Muir had defended the value of the CIA’s torture program in private conversations with Senate aides.
In a statement, Mr Jones said that Mr Muir had provided “verifiably false information” to the committee that year. The CIA later acknowledged that Mr. Muir’s statements were incorrect.
“You would hope that this kind of professional failure would at least disqualify future leadership positions,” said Mr. Jones.
The 2014 Senate Report, a sweeping indictment against the CIA, outlined the agency’s abuse and torture in questioning terrorism suspects in the years following September 11, 2001, attacks and a pattern of congressional and White House misleading about it.
While the report remains a sore point for many former senior officials who disagree with its conclusions and characterization, a number of senators have expressed frustration that some of the agency’s top officials continue to question the report.
After the publication of the BuzzFeed article, two intelligence officials insisted that the criticism of Mr. Muir’s interactions with the Senate Committee had nothing to do with the decision to change the way Mr. Biden was informed.
Ms. Schoch said Ms. Haines “remained confident in Morgan’s steady leadership.”
“Morgan Muir is a widely respected intelligence officer who has demonstrated the highest standards of integrity and professionalism throughout his career,” said Ms. Schoch.
Katie Rogers contributed reporting.