Presidential Transition 2001: NSA Briefs a New Administration (2004 Document)

Background / Excerpt

The American electoral process retains many vestiges reflecting its eighteenth century origins. In the age of supersonic transport and email, U.S. citizens select their national leadership on a timetable derived from the speed of carriages and town criers.

In the past, in the transition periods following elections, the Central Intelligence Agency has been the manager for general orientations about the foreign intelligence community and for specific, classified briefings on topics of concern to the incoming administration.

In 2000 the National Security Agency, for the first time, decided to engage more actively in the presidential transition briefing process. The issues for NSA were not small. For those in the new administration for whom this would be the first exposure to cryptology, a briefing would be an important factor in determining how they would interact with NSA.

Continue scrolling for more...

Previously, the National Security Agency (NSA) released the below document to offer insight into the 2001 transition. I requested what is called a Mandatory Declassification Review (MDR) under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and was successful in getting the NSA to review the document more thoroughly, and remove some of the “blacked out” information. I have included all releases, for reference.

The Documents

 Presidential Transition 2001: NSA Briefs a New Administration 2019 Release (With highlights of new information) – [28 Pages, 14.2MB] – This document was released to me in 2019, with less redactions, and is embedded below, after the Mandatory Declassification Review (MDR) was completed.

 Presidential Transition 2001: NSA Briefs a New Administration 2016 Release – [28 Pages, 1.6MB] – This document was released to me in 2016, after an MDR that I filed, and it is archived here for reference.

 Presidential Transition 2001: NSA Briefs a New Administration 2013 Release – [25 Pages, 2.3MB] – This was the original release of the document in 2013, and it is archived here for reference.

Follow The Black Vault on Social Media:

This post was published on February 7, 2019 8:00 am

John Greenewald

Recent Posts

FOIA Appeal Adds New Dog Bite Details from Biden White House, Confirms Video Evidence Withheld

Newly obtained Secret Service records continue to shed light on the numerous biting incidents involving…

September 26, 2025

DoD Redacts Nearly All Records Explaining AARO’s Use of Law Enforcement Exemption for UAP Files

The Department of Defense (DoD) has released a set of heavily redacted emails in response…

September 25, 2025

Pentagon Denies Existence of “Yankee Blue” Memo Reported by Wall Street Journal

A Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) response has raised new questions about a widely circulated…

September 16, 2025

DoD Says Aerospace Firms Went “On the Record” About UAP — Then Refuses to Acknowledge Records Exist

In March 2024, the Department of Defense (DoD) published publicly its Report on the Historical…

September 6, 2025

NASA Cites FOIA Exemption to Withhold James Webb Briefing Content Despite Public Hearing

In September 2024, a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request was filed with NASA seeking…

September 3, 2025

FBI Files: Historical Figures & Groups

Background Welcome to the FBI Files on Historical Figures & Groups archive at The Black…

August 31, 2025