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A review with an eye toward reforming the government’s classification system is supposed to wrap up on June 2 — but it’s looking like a key part of that plan won’t roll out anytime soon.

The White House has pushed off plans to overhaul the presidential order for designating national security secrets after concluding that ongoing criminal inquiries into potential mishandling of classified documents by President JOE BIDEN, former President DONALD TRUMP and former Vice President MIKE PENCE would pose an insurmountable distraction to the effort, a current and former official told NatSec Daily. A move would also be awkwardly timed so soon after a major leak of classified information due to the alleged actions of Massachusetts Air National Guardsman JACK TEIXEIRA.

POLITICO broke the news last year that the Biden administration had embarked on a year-long interagency review of the executive order on classification, signed by then-President BARACK OBAMA in 2009 and not revised since. The policy process was supposed to conclude next month, but there’s no indication yet of a draft EO, according to current and former officials involved.

“There was a timeline there, a deadline and we’re at the threshold of that with no sign that is being met,” said STEVEN AFTERGOOD, a longtime classification policy analyst. “That’s a shame because if there’s anything almost everyone agrees on, it’s that the classification system needs a revamp.”

Biden administration officials insist that a wide-ranging and intense policy review is underway, with a lot of the initial discussion about technology, process and budget solutions.

The administration argues that parts of the reform drive have made significant progress, including potential changes to the handling of two categories of records: controlled unclassified information and those involving special access programs.

The White House declined to address on the record the June deadline or what results, if any, would be ready by then.

But declassification advocates say changes to the 13-year-old executive order are essential and the current vagueness of the timeline means the prospect for long-stalled reform is slipping away.

“Time is running short for the Biden administration to execute,” said Daniel Schuman of the pro-transparency group Demand Progress. “Should the administration fail to release a draft memo in the upcoming month or so, we can assume that the drive for reform has fallen prey to political considerations.”

At a meeting Tuesday at the National Archives with historians, amateur sleuths and others who use the declassification process, Information Security Oversight Office chief MARK BRADLEY expressed some frustration with the pace of the review, saying it was moving “not as quickly as I would like, but it’s still out there.”

Personnel moves are fueling perceptions that the effort has stalled. As he detailed several changes he supports, Bradley informed the group that he plans to retire this summer. Meanwhile, one of the lead officials at NSC on classification policy — JOHN POWERS — is expected to return to NARA next month.

Congress could pick up the baton, as lawmakers are pressing for various reforms targeting overclassification while some also seek to tighten other aspects of the system. Just this morning, a bipartisan group of senators unveiled two bills to reform the classification and declassification processes.

“The National Security Council staff is undertaking an intensive process to evaluate ways to modernize how the U.S. government manages sensitive information. We are working to ensure the U.S. government is well positioned to balance transparency with protecting classified information in an increasingly digitized environment,” National Security Council Spokesperson ADAM HODGE said.

But any effort at reform driven by Congress faces significant legal questions, because deciding what secrets need protection has long been considered a core presidential prerogative. “No administration wants to have Congress weighing in on this issue, and my colleagues know that,” Sen. MARK WARNER (D-Va.), chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said at a news conference unveiling the legislation.

ISRAEL-GAZA CONFLICT RAMPS UP: Palestinian militants fired hundreds of rockets at Israel from the Gaza Strip throughout Wednesday — the latest strike in a flare-up of violence in recent days, Associated Press’ FARES AKRAM and ILAN BEN ZION report.

It’s the first response after Israel killed three senior Islamic Jihad militants and 10 civilians in a rocket strike on apartment buildings on Tuesday. Israeli airstrikes have killed 21 Palestinians in the past two days.

A state-run Egyptian television station said Cairo had brokered a ceasefire on Wednesday in the conflict, but more rockets were fired toward Israel shortly after. In a television address, Israeli Prime Minister BENJAMIN NETANYAHU said that while Palestinian militants were hit hard, “this round is not over… You can’t hide, and we choose the place and time to strike you.”

In what’s being dubbed Operation Shield and Arrow, Israel Defense Forces officials said they’re targeting rocket launchers and other posts belonging to the Islamic Jihadist group in the Gaza Strip. A video circulated by the IDF shows several of the strikes.

KILICDAROGLU’S VISION: If KEMAL KILICDAROGLU successfully ousts Turkish President RECEP TAYYIP ERDOĞAN from office in the country’s Sunday election, one of his primary objectives would be to strengthen Turkey’s ties with NATO.

While he would maintain investments in Moscow, Kilicdaroglu told the Wall Street Journal’s JARED MALSIN and ELVAN KIVILCIM that he would follow some Western sanctions against Russia as the war in Ukraine continues — a stark contrast to Erdoğan’s friendly stance toward the Kremlin. “Turkey must comply with decisions taken by NATO,” Kilicdaroglu said.

According to the latest polls, the 74-year-old opposition leader has a slight lead over Erdoğan but lacks the 50 percent threshold to win in the first round. A runoff against the president, who has dominated Turkish politics for two decades, is likely.

Despite Kilicdaroglu’s popularity, “Erdoğan is by no means out of the picture. His criminalization of the opposition, coupled with his dominance in the information domain, is having an effect,” the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace’s ALPER COŞKUN, who served in Turkey’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, told NatSec Daily.

However, “I believe the chances of political change are higher than we’ve ever seen in the past 20-plus years,” he added.

WAGNER’S STAYING IN BAKHMUT: Despite Wagner Group chief YEVGENY PRIGOZHIN’s threats to completely withdraw his troops from Bakhmut, there’s no sign he’ll follow through, two U.S. officials told our own ERIN BANCO.

Prigozhin’s recent remarks aren’t credible and were likely meant to elicit a reaction from inside Moscow’s defense apparatus, the officials said. Wagner still holds significant stockpiles of ammo and controls at least 85 percent of Bakhmut, they added.

On Tuesday, however, Prigozhin said one of his units had fled a southwestern section of Bakhmut — a claim Ukrainian military officials confirmed Wednesday.

“It’s official. Prigozhin’s report … is true,” Ukrainian military officials wrote in a statement, per Reuters’ TOM BALMFORTH and OLENA HARMASH. Much of the Wagner brigade was destroyed, including a large number of fighting vehicles, and a “considerable number” of prisoners were taken, the officials said.

The retreat shows that Prigozhin failed to “blackmail” Moscow’s defense ministry when he asked for more military assistance, according to VOLODYMYR OMELYAN, a captain in the Ukraine Armed Forces and the country’s former minister of infrastructure. But that doesn’t mean Ukraine has won the battle in Bakhmut.

There’s “no game change,” Omelyan told NatSec Daily. “We achieved some success, it’s true, but it’s still very tough there.”

MODI STATE VISIT: White House spokesperson KARINE JEAN-PIERRE announced that Biden will host Indian Prime Minister NARENDRA MODI for a state visit on June 22.

The U.S. has tried to court India as it seeks to compete with China. But giving a major diplomatic honor to Modi — who acts in increasingly authoritarian ways — is likely to hurt the administration’s position that it puts human rights at the center of its foreign policy and that the defining fight of the modern era is between democracies and autocracies.

That’s not how the White House sees it, though. “The president believes this is an important relationship that we need to continue and build on,” KJP told a group of reporters later.

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PENCE DECISION IN JUNE?: Former VP Pence says he’ll make a decision about running for the Oval Office by the end of June.

“I expect before the month of June is out, we’ll let people know of our decision,” he said in a Tuesday interview with NBC News. “If we choose to go forward, this race doesn’t really start until the August debate in Milwaukee.”

Pence’s official entry into the race would immediately make him one of the biggest names in the field, arguably second behind Trump, his former boss.

Pence and Trump don’t see eye to eye on national security, where the former VP is more aligned with traditional Republican orthodoxy than Trump, who espouses a nationalist “America First” ideology. Pitting them against each other would not only expose the personal fissures between them, but symbolize the growing splits within the GOP’s worldviews.

FIRST IN NATSEC DAILY — CYBER EXPANSION: Sen. TAMMY DUCKWORTH (D-Ill.) introduced a new bill on Wednesday that seeks to expand the list of partner countries who qualify for participation in the ongoing pilot program to improve cyber cooperation with foreign military partners.

The Southeast Asia Partnership Expansion Act would provide opportunities for Malaysia and the Philippines to join the list of partners in the program, which currently includes Vietnam, Thailand and Indonesia. It would also extend the authorization for the pilot, from its current sunset in December 2024 to a new sunset in December 2029.

“By working more closely with our partners across Southeast Asia, we can continue to bolster our cyber capabilities and interoperability and help these key partners better protect against cyber attacks,” Duckworth said in a statement to NatSec Daily.

GET BY WITH A LITTLE HELP FROM OUR FRIENDS: The United States and Canada wrapped up a three-month exercise this week to hunt through the systems of critical networks in NATO member Latvia for vulnerabilities, U.S. Cyber Command announced Wednesday.

As our own MAGGIE MILLER writes in, the effort involved teams from both countries working within the networks of the Latvian government’s choosing to find spots vulnerable to attack, and also to learn techniques and tactics used by hackers.

This exercise marked the first time U.S. and Canadian cyber forces have conducted hunts in the same systems simultaneously, though it’s far from the only exercise the U.S. has been involved in. In March, Cyber Command announced that the Cyber National Mission Force had conducted a hunt forward operation in Albanian networks following major Iranian cyberattacks on Albania last year, and the same cyber forces have carried out numerous exercises in Ukraine.

RESEARCH AWARDS: The Pentagon awarded $18 million in Defense Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research awards to 28 collaborative academic teams on Wednesday.

The awards are designed to support science and engineering research at higher education institutions that could, over time, prove useful to the military’s development efforts.

“Since the next scientific breakthrough could come from any corner of our nation, growing the department’s ecosystem of creative and insightful researchers is critical to our national security,” said BINDU NAIR, Director of DoD’s Basic Research Office.

‘NO GROUNDS TO HOLD EVAN’: House Foreign Affairs Committee Chair MICHAEL McCAUL (R-Texas) is leading a bipartisan effort to pass a resolution calling on Russia to free EVAN GERSHKOVICH, the Wall Street Journal reporter detained in Moscow last month.

“Russia has no grounds to hold Evan Gershkovich prisoner,” said McCaul in a joint statement released Wednesday with ranking members GREGORY MEEKS (D-N.Y.), WILLIAM KEATING (D-Mass.)., and Europe Subcommittee Chair THOMAS KEAN.

The resolution demands Moscow release Gershkovich and provide him unfettered access to U.S. consular officials, according to the Journal. The measure also urges the White House to speak with Russian officials about his detainment, and that of another American, PAUL WHELAN.

The resolution is scheduled to get a committee vote on May 16, and a vote from the entire chamber later this month.

DEM BORDER BATTLE: Democrats in the House are calling on Biden to reverse Trump-era sanctions imposed on Cuba and Venezuela that they say are contributing to a surge in border crossings, the Washington Post’s JOHN HUDSON reports.

The effort, led by Rep. VERONICA ESCOBAR (D-Texas.), lays the groundwork for a major clash with the hawkish chair of the Senate Foreign Relations committee Sen. BOB MENENDEZ (D-N.J.)., who has resisted efforts from the Biden administration to normalize relations with both countries.

“We urge you to act swiftly to lift the failed and indiscriminate economic sanctions that were imposed by the prior administration,” they added. The letter is also signed by Reps. NANETTE BARRAGÁN (D-Calif.) RAÚL GRIJALVA (D-Ariz.) GREG CASAR (D-Texas), ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ (D-N.Y.) and RASHIDA TLAIB (D-Mich.).

NDAA MARKUPS PUSHED: The House Armed Services Committee is delaying its markup of the National Defense Authorization Act that was supposed to begin this week, according to four people familiar, our own CONNOR O’BRIEN and LEE HUDSON reports (for Pros!).

The reason for the delay and whether a new date will be set to consider the defense bill, remains unclear. Last week, POLITICO reported that the Senate Armed Services Committee postponed consideration of its own defense bill over the debt ceiling debate.

RUSSIA THE ENEMY: 64 percent of Americans view Russia as an enemy of the United States, rather than a partner or a competitor, according to a Pew Research Center poll released Wednesday. Americans’ attitudes remain very negative toward Russia, with 91 percent having an unfavorable view of the country.

Prior to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, opinion was more mixed, though they have mostly trended negatively since Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea. The poll also shows that the U.S. has high confidence in Ukraine’s leader VOLODYMYR ZELESNSKYY.

— HawkEye 360’s advisory board has added retired Gen. JOHN ABIZAID, a former U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia; KARI BINGEN, the director of the Aerospace Security Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies; former Rep. JIM COOPER (D-Tenn.), who was chair of the HASC Strategic Forces Subcommittee, and M. SANJAYAN, the CEO of Conservation International.

–– JOSH ROGIN, The Washington Post: Taiwan is urging the U.S. not to abandon Ukraine

— MICHAEL KOFMAN and ROB LEE, Foreign Affairs: Beyond Ukraine’s offensive

— ROBBIE GRAMER, Foreign Policy: How the U.S. fumbled Sudan’s hopes for democracy

— Atlantic Council, 7 a.m.: Road to Vilnius: Pre-NATO Summit

— Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association, 8:30 a.m.: The Future Information Environment

— Senate Appropriations Committee, 9 a.m.: A Review of the President’s Fiscal Year 2024 Budget Request for the Department of Defense

— House Armed Services Committee, 10 a.m.: National Defense Authorization Act for FY2024

— Atlantic Council, 11 a.m.: Woman, Life, Freedom: Eight months of ongoing protests in Iran

— National Defense Industrial Association, 1 p.m.: Report Launch: Future Hypersonics Supply Chains

— House Foreign Affairs Committee, 2 p.m.: Reviewing the Bureau of Industry and Security, Part I: U.S. Export Controls in an Era of Strategic Competition

— Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 3 p.m.: Who Makes the Rules? China and the Law of the Sea

— American Enterprise Institute, 5 p.m.: The 2023 AI Index

— Intelligence and National Security Alliance, 5:30 p.m.: Leadership Dinner with Ltg. SCOTT BERRIER

Thanks to our editor, Heidi Vogt, who promised to reform our classification system but prefers to keep everything secret.

We also thank our producer, Sinobia Aiden, who completes every review before deadline.