--- 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: 2026-02-22T23:37:31.108Z 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=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 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=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Harry Reid Wants Donald Trump to Get Fake Intelligence Briefings  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":"2026-02-22T23:37:31.108Z","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 topic","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"}}]}] ```