Gregory Korte

USA TODAY

WASHINGTON — President Obama says he's obligated by law to allow Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton to receive classified intelligence briefings.

What he doesn't say is that the law he's referring to is an executive order — one that he signed.

Both Trump and Clinton have now received those classified briefings as part of a tradition that goes back to the Truman administration. Trump's briefing happened on August 17 in New York. Clinton received hers Saturday at the FBI Field Office in White Plains, N.Y., meeting alone with intelligence officials for 130 minutes, the campaign said.

For 64 years, similar briefings for presidential candidates were relatively low-key and uncontroversial. But Trump's often loose-lipped Twittering and Clinton's carelessness with classified e-mails as secretary of State have led critics on both sides to urge Obama to halt the practice. Obama suggested earlier this month that that he didn't have a choice.

"We are going to go by the law, which is that — in both tradition and the law — that if somebody is the nominee, the Republican nominee for president, they need to get a security briefing so that if they were to win, they are not starting from scratch in terms of being prepared for this office," Obama said earlier this month.

Obama: Candidates will protect intel secrets

Obama's emphasis on the law was a subtle break from the previous White House explanation of the briefings, which were attributed to "longstanding tradition." By also citing the law, Obama suggested he didn't have a choice in giving the briefings.

But if the briefings are required, it's only because of a law Obama created.

Executive Order 13727, which Obama signed on May 6, includes the Director of National Intelligence on a newly established body called the White House Transition Coordinating Council. The order instructs members of that council to "facilitate communication and information sharing between the transition representatives of eligible candidates." While the main focus of the council is to provide for a smooth transition of personnel, members are ordered to provide other "useful and appropriate" information.

National security officials declined to comment on the legal basis for the intelligence briefings.

Executive orders carry the force of law on executive agencies, and often implement laws passed by Congress. In this case, the order implements the Presidential Transitions Improvement Act, which Obama signed into law March 18. That law makes no mention of intelligence, and leaves it up to the president to determine the composition of the White House Transition Coordinating Council.

White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough convened a meeting of that council last Thursday, inviting members of the transition teams for both the Trump and Clinton campaigns. Press Secretary Josh Earnest said the meeting included "a couple of senior national security officials," but that it was focused more on personnel and administrative processes than on policy issues.