--- title: Harry Reid: Don't Give Donald Trump Classified Briefings description: Harry Reid implored intelligence officials not to give classified briefings to Donald Trump during the presidential campaign canonical: https://time.com/4428532/harry-reid-donald-trump-classified-briefing/ author: Katie Reilly article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-07-28T15:27:11.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-19T07:45:49.992Z article:section: Politics og:title: Harry Reid Wants Donald Trump to Get Fake Intelligence Briefings og:description: “Fake it, pretend you’re doing a briefing, but you can’t give the guy any information” og:url: https://time.com/4428532/harry-reid-donald-trump-classified-briefing/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd7182630466096f4/6988a0030b72e367816ea6d8/harry-reid-trump-briefings.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3936 og:image:height: 2214 og:image:alt: Democratic National Convention: Day Three og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Harry Reid Wants Donald Trump to Get Fake Intelligence Briefings twitter:description: “Fake it, pretend you’re doing a briefing, but you can’t give the guy any information” twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd7182630466096f4/6988a0030b72e367816ea6d8/harry-reid-trump-briefings.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Harry Reid Wants Donald Trump to Get Fake Intelligence Briefings > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters.  by [Katie Reilly](https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/)  ## Katie Reilly Jul 28, 2016 3:27 PM UTC  U.S. Sen. Minority Leader Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV) gestures to the crowd as he delivers remarks at the Democratic National Convention on July 27, 2016 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. U.S. Sen. Minority Leader Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV) gestures to the crowd as he delivers remarks at the Democratic National Convention on July 27, 2016 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Alex Wong/Getty Images  by [Katie Reilly](https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/)  ## Katie Reilly Jul 28, 2016 3:27 PM UTC Senate Minority Leader [Harry Reid](http://time.com/4263060/harry-reid-donald-trump-republicans/) implored intelligence officials tasked with giving classified briefings to Donald Trump during the presidential campaign [not to actually divulge important information](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/harry-reid-trump-fake-briefings%5Fus%5F57991916e4b01180b5317f6e). “How would the CIA and the other intelligence agencies brief this guy? How could they do that? I would suggest to the intelligence agencies, if you’re forced to brief this guy, don’t tell him anything, just fake it, because this man is dangerous,” Reid told [the _Huffington Post_](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/harry-reid-trump-fake-briefings%5Fus%5F57991916e4b01180b5317f6e). “Fake it, pretend you’re doing a briefing, but you can’t give the guy any information.” Reid said Trump’s comments [encouraging Russia to hack](http://time.com/4426272/donald-trump-hillary-clinton-russia-emails/) into Hillary Clinton’s emails were “much worse than Watergate.” This isn’t the first time Reid has been outspoken in targeting a Republican presidential nominee. In 2012, he [famously speculated](http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2012/aug/06/harry-reid/harry-reid-says-anonymous-source-told-him-mitt-rom/) on the Senate floor that Mitt Romney hadn’t paid any taxes in 10 years. The topic of withholding confidential briefings has come up before during this presidential campaign. Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan [formally requested](http://time.com/4396307/paul-ryan-hillary-clinton-emails-classified-information/) that Clinton not receive classified information from the government while she’s a candidate. His request came after FBI Director James Comey criticized Clinton and her aides for being “extremely careless” in handling classified information while she used a private email server as Secretary of State. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4428532/harry-reid-donald-trump-classified-briefing/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4428532/harry-reid-donald-trump-classified-briefing/"},"headline":"Harry Reid Wants Donald Trump to Get Fake Intelligence Briefings","datePublished":"2016-07-28T15:27:11.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-19T07:45:49.992Z","description":"“Fake it, pretend you’re doing a briefing, but you can’t give the guy any information”","url":"https://time.com/4428532/harry-reid-donald-trump-classified-briefing/","keywords":["2016 Election","2016 Election","Donald Trump"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd7182630466096f4/6988a0030b72e367816ea6d8/harry-reid-trump-briefings.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Katie Reilly","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd7182630466096f4/6988a0030b72e367816ea6d8/harry-reid-trump-briefings.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Democratic National Convention: Day Three","caption":"Democratic National Convention: Day Three","creditText":"Alex Wong/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/2016-election/","name":"2016 Election"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4428532/harry-reid-donald-trump-classified-briefing/","name":"Harry Reid Wants Donald Trump to Get Fake Intelligence Briefings"}}]}] ```