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President Donald Trump said Wednesday that acting Director of National Intelligence Bill Pulte has broad authority to declassify government records, including potentially documents related to the 2020 election, while serving in the temporary role.
The president appointed Pulte to lead the Office of the Director of National Intelligence last month, placing the Federal Housing Finance Agency director in the position on an acting basis while awaiting Senate action on his permanent nominee, Jay Clayton.
Speaking to reporters before departing Joint Base Andrews for an event in North Dakota, Trump said Pulte had been given broad discretion over classified records.
“Bill’s there, just, you know, for maybe a month or two months or something,” President Trump said. “But while he’s there, I said, ‘You can declassify whatever you want.'”
When asked whether that authority included records related to the 2020 election, Trump replied, “I told him you could do it, it’s fair. You got to ask him.”
President Trump, who returned to the White House after winning the 2024 election, has continued to argue that widespread fraud affected the 2020 presidential election.
Neither the Office of the Director of National Intelligence nor the office of Tom Cotton, chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, have responded to the latest comment.
The Office of the Director of National Intelligence oversees the U.S. intelligence community, including the Central Intelligence Agency and the National Security Agency.
President Trump said he expects Clayton’s confirmation hearing to take place in about two weeks, although Congress is in recess for the Independence Day holiday and no hearing had been listed on the Senate Intelligence Committee’s public schedule.
Pulte will continue serving as director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency while leading the intelligence office on an acting basis until the Senate acts on Clayton’s nomination. Reports indicate Pulte has already begun implementing workforce reductions within the intelligence community.
