Joe Biden’s team warns of security risk as Pentagon halts briefings

President-elect Joe Biden’s incoming administration has warned on Friday of risks to national security after it informed the Pentagon suddenly halted briefings for the transition team, AFP reported.

Yohannes Abraham, executive director for the Biden transition team, said he was “concerned to learn this week about an abrupt halt in the already limited cooperation there.”

The latest stumble in what is traditionally a carefully choreographed handover of power between outgoing and incoming US administrations comes as Washington reels from a massive, possibly Russian state cyber attack.

Abraham said the attack was of “great concern” and added that under Biden cyber attacks will meet a response inflicting “substantial cost.”

“There’s no time to spare,” Abraham added.

Meanwhile, President Donald Trump, who is refusing to acknowledge his election loss to Biden, until recently held back from allowing government agencies to cooperate with Biden’s team, as is the custom.

Trump’s acting defense secretary, Chris Miller, said in a statement on Friday that the two sides had a “mutually agreed upon holiday pause” on briefings with military officials.

However, Abraham said this was not true.

“There was no mutually agreed upon holiday break,” he told reporters, warning that “a failure to work together could have consequences well beyond” Biden’s inauguration in January.

Trump is yet to give a direct statement on the hacking breach or to comment on allegations by senior politicians and private cybersecurity companies that it was carried out by Moscow.

Also read: US under massive cyberattack, heightening fears in other countries

According to Abraham, the Biden team has “hope and expectation” that the Pentagon briefings will recommence “immediately.”