Trump strips away security clearance from former CIA Director John Brennan
During Wednesday’s press briefing, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders did not address the Trump-Omarosa drama. Instead, she took the opportunity to make a statement that the White House is revoking the security clearance of former CIA director John Brennan has “indulged in erratic conduct,” given “frenzied commentary,” made “a series of unfounded and outrageous allegations, wild outbursts on the internet and television.” Additionally, the White House says Brennan has monetized his official position and told lies.
To clarify, Brennan is linked to the leaking of the fake Trump dossier hit piece and has verbally attacked Trump regularly.
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Sanders said Trump has exercised his “unique constitutional responsibility to protect the nation’s classified information.”
“Mr. Brennan’s lying and recent conduct characterized by increasingly frenzied commentary is wholly inconsistent with access to the nation’s most closely held secrets and facilities, the very aim of our adversaries which is to sow division and chaos,” Sanders said. Brennan later said he was not informed by the government that his security clearance was revoked, but instead learned it from a friend who called when Sanders was delivering the president’s statement.
“Mr. Brennan has recently leveraged his status as a former high-ranking official with access to highly sensitive information to make a series of unfounded and outrageous allegations — wild outbursts on the internet and television — about this Administration,“ the president‘s statement continued.
“More broadly, the issue of Mr. Brennan’s security clearance raises larger questions about the practice of former officials maintaining access to our nation’s most sensitive secrets long after their time in government has ended,” Sanders said.
Brennan later responded on Twitter.
“This action is part of a broader effort by Mr. Trump to suppress freedom of speech & punish critics,” he wrote. “It should gravely worry all Americans, including intelligence professionals, about the cost of speaking out. My principles are worth far more than clearances. I will not relent,” he wrote.
Brennan, who led the CIA during most of President Obama’s second term, has emerged as one of Trump’s fiercest critics, denouncing his performance at a summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin last month as “treasonous.”
On Tuesday, Brennan attacked Trump’s personal character after he derided former White House aide Omarosa Manigault Newman as a “dog.”
“As far as we know, this is the first time that a president of the United States has individually taken action against somebody’s security clearance,” said Mark Zaid, an attorney who represents government employees in security-clearance disputes.
Last month, the White House said that along with Brennan and Comey, the president was scrutinizing former CIA director Michael V. Hayden, former national security adviser Susan E. Rice, former director of national intelligence James R. Clapper Jr. and former FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe.
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