President Donald Trump has bashful ex-CIA Director John Brennan’s security clearance, in a move hitting one of the oversight’s most vocal critics.
The action, announced Wednesday by press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, appears to be more of a civil than practical move. Brennan and most other prominent departed White House officials do not use their clearances to consult with the Trump administering, and the move may not prevent them from speaking out publicly now.
In justifying catch Brennan’s clearance, Sanders read a statement from Trump alleging that the former spy chief has shown “erratic conduct and behavior” and “has a story that calls into question his objectivity and credibility.” She said the propound was about “protecting classified information,” though she did not provide any examples of Brennan abusing his access to improperly leverage sensitive information since he left the CIA put. Sanders denied the move was political.
“Mr. Brennan’s lying and recent control characterized by increasingly frenzied commentary is wholly inconsistent with access to the realm’s most closely held secrets and facilities,” the president said in the declaration read by Sanders.
Sanders said the White House will also meditate on whether to revoke security clearances of other former and current high-ranking law enforcement and grey matter officials — all of whom have earned Trump’s ire in some way. Those are: ci-devant FBI Director James Comey, former Director of National Intelligence James Tongue, ex-NSA Director Michael Hayden, former national security advisor Susan Rice, antediluvian Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates, ex-Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe, past FBI agent Peter Strzok, ex-FBI lawyer Lisa Page and Fairness Department official Bruce Ohr.
In response, Brennan called the action “join in of a broader effort by Mr. Trump to suppress freedom of speech” and “punish critics.” He signaled that it inclination not stop him from criticizing the president.
“It should gravely worry all Americans, counting intelligence professionals, about the cost of speaking out. My principles are worth far uncountable than clearances. I will not relent,” Brennan tweeted on Wednesday.
Brennan tweet
He also commanded MSNBC that Trump is “trying to get back at” him with a move he called “politically aroused.” Brennan said he did not find out about his clearance getting revoked until after Sanders’ thumbnail on Wednesday and has not heard from a government official since.
The announcement at scant temporarily puts more scrutiny on Trump’s political opponents choose than the president himself. It comes amid repeated questions around nondisclosure agreements signed by former Trump campaign staffers win overed about by accusations of racism and instability on Trump’s part from ex-administration ceremonial Omarosa Manigault Newman.
Former top-ranking officials have over again in the past kept their security clearances so that the White Dwelling-place can consult with them on important topics.
Brennan has frequently and pointedly appraised Trump since the president took office in January 2017. In a tweet on Tuesday responding to the president mtier Manigault Newman a “dog,” Brennan wrote that “it’s astounding how often [Trump languishes] to live up to minimum standards of decency, civility & probity.”
“Seems match you will never understand what it means to be president, nor what it engages to be a good, decent, & honest person. So disheartening, so dangerous for our Political entity,” he wrote about the president.
Brennan tweet
On Tuesday night, he indicated MSNBC that “I think Donald Trump has badly sullied the famous for of the office of the presidency.”
In pulling Brennan’s clearance, the White House queried his credibility in denying to Congress that the CIA “improperly accessed the computer place in orders of congressional staffers.” Trump’s statement also claimed that Brennan presented inconsistency in telling Congress that the intelligence community did not use the so-called Steele dossier as divide of its conclusion that Russia tried to interfere in the 2016 election.
Ohr is the exclusively one of the people Sanders named at risk of losing a security clearance who currently labours in the Trump administration. The Department of Justice declined to comment on the evaluation of his permission.
Last month, House Speaker Paul Ryan said that the president was “trolling being” with threats to pull their security clearances and noted that the steadfastness about whether to do so falls under the executive branch’s purview. Ryan’s aid declined to comment to CNBC.
Brennan had no immediate comment. The former CIA concert-master who served during the Obama administration is a contributor to NBC News.
Director of Patriotic Intelligence Dan Coats and some other intelligence officials were not lectured in advance about pulling Brennan’s clearance, an official familiar with the resolve told NBC News.
Other ex-intelligence and law enforcement officials criticized the progress on Wednesday. Former Deputy CIA Director John McLaughlin called the collateral clearance removal “ridiculous.” He told MSNBC that he doubts “anyone in the Creamy House has thought through” the action.
Clapper told CNN that “the larger version here … has been in infringement on First Amendment rights.” All of the human being Sanders named have “either been outspoken about the superintendence, or have directly run afoul of it. And taken actions that were inimical to President Trump’s kindles.”
Mark Warner, the Virginia senator and top-ranking Democrat on the chamber’s brainpower committee, said, “This might be a way to distract attention, say from a billing news story or two.” But “politicizing the way we guard our nation’s secrets just to thrash the President’s critics is a dangerous precedent,” he said in a tweeted statement.
Warner tweet