Incoming White House press secretary Sean Spicer said Thursday that reports President-elect Donald Trump is working on plans to restructure the intelligence community are “100 percent false.”
“These reports are false,” Spicer told reporters on a conference call Thursday morning. “All transition activities are for information-gathering purposes and all discussions are tentative.”
The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday evening that Trump and his transition team were working on a plan to restructure the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the CIA because Trump believes they are biased against him.
Spicer told reporters that Trump’s “top priority” would be ensuring the security and safety of the United States.
“He’s committed to finding the best and most effective ways to do it,” Spicer said. “But I want to reiterate, there is no truth to this idea of restructuring the intelligence community infrastructure. It is 100 percent false.”
In recent weeks, Trump has repeatedly dismissed the U.S. intelligence community’s conclusion that Russia backed election-related hacking of Democratic groups and operatives. In a series of tweets posted Thursday morning, however, Trump denied that he is “against ‘Intelligence.'”
