Onlookers doubt that the firebrand president-elect is likely to sift through data himself, but they are worried he will send a team of loyalists to go through the information and brief him themselves.
In a Trump White House, that could be anyone from retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, Trump’s pick for national security advisor, to Steve Bannon, the incoming White House chief strategist.
The problem with sending political appointees in to do the job of career analysts, intelligence experts say, is that they won’t know what information is significant and what should be discarded.
“Bannon is certainly the kind of person who would want to do that but that would be a disaster,” said Mieke Eoyang, a former House Intelligence Committee staffer who is now vice president of Third Way’s national security program.
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