Trump fury finds new target
President Donald Trump says that he suspects he’ll ‘‘very quickly’’ revoke the security clearance for a Justice Department official whose wife worked for the firm involved in producing a dossier on Trump’s ties to Russia.
Signalling that his efforts to target clearances over his frustration with the Russia investigation were not over, Trump tweeted that it was a ‘‘disgrace’’ for Bruce Ohr to be in the Justice Department.
His comments came two days after he yanked the security clearance of former CIA Director John Brennan, saying he had to do ‘‘something’’ about the ‘‘rigged’’ federal probe of Russian election interference.
Critics have cast it as an act of political vengeance.
Ohr has come under Republican scrutiny for his contacts to Glenn Simpson, co-founder of Fusion GPS. The opposition research firm hired former British spy Christopher Steele during the 2016 presidential campaign to compile the dossier on Trump and his Russia ties.
Ohr’s wife, Nellie, worked for Fusion GPS during the campaign – something Trump has tweeted about to highlight his assertions of political bias behind the Russia investigation.
Former US security officials on Friday issued scathing rebukes to Trump for moving against Brennan.
Trump’s admission that he acted out of frustration with the Russia probe underscored his willingness to use his executive power to fight back against an investigation he sees as a threat to his presidency. Legal experts said the dispute may add to the evidence being reviewed by special counsel Robert Mueller.
In an opinion piece in The New York Times, Brennan said Trump’s decision, announced Wednesday, to deny him access to classified information was a desperate attempt to end Mueller’s investigation. Brennan, who served under President Barack Obama and has become a vocal Trump critic, called Trump’s claims that he did not collude with Russia ‘‘hogwash.’’
The only question remaining is whether the collusion amounts to a ‘‘constituted criminally liable conspiracy,’’ Brennan wrote.
Later, the retired Navy admiral who oversaw the raid that killed Osama bin Laden called Trump’s moves ‘‘McCarthy-era tactics.’’ Writing in The Washington Post, William H. McRaven said he would ‘‘consider it an honour’’ if Trump would revoke his clearance, as well.
‘‘Through your actions, you have embarrassed us in the eyes of our children, humiliated us on the world stage and, worst of all, divided us as a nation,’’ McRaven wrote.
That was followed by a joint letter from 15 former senior intelligence officials calling Trump’s action ‘‘ill-considered and unprecedented.’’ They said it ‘‘has nothing to do with who should and should not hold security clearances – and everything to do with an attempt to stifle free speech.’’
The signees included seven former CIA directors, six former CIA deputy directors and two former national intelligence directors, James Clapper and retired Navy Adm. Denny Blair. Clapper and former CIA Director Michael Hayden have appeared on a White House list of people who may also have their security clearances revoked.
Then on Saturday, 60 former CIA officials issued their own statement, joining a chorus of opposition from the intelligence community to Trump’s decisions to threaten to or actually pull clearances.