TTwo years ago, the FBI raided Donald Trump’s home to recover government documents he had refused to return, including hundreds containing classified information. The subsequent indictment alleged that the former president left classified information hang out next to the toilets and stacked on a ballroom stage.

Now, Trump is set to be briefed again on the country’s secrets to prepare him to take the reins of government on January 20. “They’re not going to restrict it,” says one Republican involved in the transition.

It’s an awkward dance. Biden previously called Trump’s handling of Top Secret documents “totally irresponsible.” And during his first term, Trump raised alarms in the intelligence community when he would have shared the secrets of a close U.S. ally with senior Russian officials during an Oval Office meeting. Meanwhile, federal officials charge Trump for violating the Espionage Act for unauthorized withholding of national defense information, a case that is now expected to be dismissed in the coming weeks.

But Biden has asked his entire administration to work with Trump’s team to ensure an “orderly” transition. That means looking beyond Trump’s prior history with classified information.

“He was indicted for mishandling classified information,” says Jeremy Bash, former chief of staff of the CIA and Department of Defense during the Obama administration. “But given that he is about to assume the presidency, the responsible thing to do would be to provide him with classified briefings and offer government resources to help him manage and store any classified material he has need.”

For decades, presidents-elect have been allowed to receive sensitive national security information from the nation’s intelligence agencies well before Inauguration Day. It is a practice rooted in the idea that voters have chosen the person who will lead the country and that no additional oversight is required beyond swearing-in.

When asked Thursday whether Biden was concerned that Trump would divulge secrets, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said she “wouldn’t get into speculation” about what Trump might do with the classified information he provided her, and she referred TIME’s question to the office. of the director of national intelligence, who will be responsible for briefing Trump on the country’s closely monitored operations.

“ODNI is acting in accordance with the tradition, in place since 1952, of providing intelligence information to the President-elect,” an ODNI spokesperson said.

Gregory Treverton, who chaired the National Intelligence Council from 2014 to 2017, called Trump’s history of showing classified information to others as a souvenir, without regard to who he might put, “scary.” in danger in the process. The situation will pose a major challenge for intelligence officials who are working to hide how they collected information and protect sources who might have risked their lives, he said. “For a profession that is so disciplined, so nonpartisan, and so attentive to politics, to confront someone who violates all of those standards is horrible,” Treverton says.

Before a presidential election, Democratic and Republican candidates typically sign an agreement with the General Services Administration in the final months of the campaign to obtain information from key federal agencies. This is intended to ensure that the winning candidate can get a head start in hiring and prepare to take on the nation’s toughest problems. But Trump’s team decided not to sign that deal before Election Day and is only now negotiating terms under which its aides will be able to use federal offices and look under the hood of federal government operations.

“Trump-Vance transition attorneys continue to collaborate constructively with Biden-Harris administration attorneys regarding all agreements contemplated by the Presidential Transition Act. We will keep you updated once a decision is made,” Brian Hughes, a spokesperson for the Trump-Vance transition, said in a statement sent to TIME.

Members of the new president’s staff generally must pass a screening to obtain the security clearance necessary to access classified information. Assistants typically must sign agreements promising to protect sensitive information and go through a background check. Last month, the New York Times reported that some Trump advisers had proposed bypassing these traditional background checks and immediately granting security clearances to many Trump appointees.