Ex-CIA chief loses security clearance
President Donald Trump WASHINGTON — has revoked the security clearance of former CIA director John Brennan, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders announced Wednesday, citing “the risk posed by his erratic conduct and behavior.”
Brennan is a leading critic of Trump who as recently as Tuesday sharply denounced the president for calling his former aide Omarosa Manigault Newman “that dog.”
Trump is also reviewing security clearances of other former officials including former FBI director James Comey, Sanders said during a regular White House news briefing.
“First, at this point in my administration, any benefits that senior officials might glean from consultations with Mr. Brennan are now outweighed by the risk posed by his erratic conduct and behavior,”
Trump said in a statement read by Sanders at Wednesday’s briefing.
“Second, that conduct and behavior has tested and far exceeded the limits of any professional courtesy that may have been due to him,” Trump said in the statement. “Mr. Brennan has a history that calls into question his objectivity and credibility.”
Last month, Sanders said Trump was “looking to take away” the clearances of Brennan, Comey and several other former senior national security and intelligence officials who served in the administrations of George W. Bush or Barack Obama.
Those officials included former CIA director Michael Hayden, former national security adviser Susan Rice, former director of national intelligence James Clapper Jr. and former FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe.
On Wednesday, Sanders expanded that list to include former acting attorney general Sally Yates, former FBI lawyer Lisa Page, former FBI agent Peter Strzok and former Justice Department official Bruce Ohr.
Yates was fired by Trump last year after she defied the president and ordered federal attorneys not to defend his controversial travel ban. Strzok and Page, two of Trump’s favorite targets on Twitter, became the centerpiece of Republicans’ efforts to discredit special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia probe after antiTrump texts between the two were revealed last year. Strzok was fired over the texts this week.
Ohr is also the frequent object of GOP criticism; he was named by Republicans in a memo earlier this year that targeted his ties to the former British intelligence officer who wrote the controversial dossier on the Trump campaign’s alleged contacts with Russian officials.
The announcement Wednesday that Brennan’s clearance had been revoked triggered an outcry from critics who argued that the move was aimed at silencing critics of the president.
In an appearance on CNN shortly after Sanders’ appearance in the White House briefing room, Clapper described the move as “unprecedented” and an “infringement on our rights of speech,” noting that all of the former officials on Trump’s list have been outspoken in their criticism of Trump at one point or another.
Clapper maintained that the move would not affect his own decision on whether to speak out against the president.
“If they’re saying that the only way I can speak is to be in an adulation mode of this president, I’m sorry, I don’t think I can sign up for that,” he said.
Ben Rhodes, a deputy national security adviser during the Obama administration, echoed Clapper’s criticism in an appearance on MSNBC in which he blasted the move as “authoritarianism in its purest form.”
“This might be a convenient way to distract attention, say from a damaging news story or two,” Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., said on Twitter. “But politicizing the way we guard our nation’s secrets just to punish the President’s critics is a dangerous precedent.”
Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said Trump’s move demonstrates “how deeply insecure and vindictive he is — two character flaws dangerous in any President.”
“An enemies list is ugly, undemocratic and un-American. I also believe this action to silence a critic is unlawful,” Schiff said in a tweet.
Trump’s targeting of Brennan also prompted disapproval from within his own party. Alberto R. Gonzales, attorney general under President George W. Bush, said in an appearance on Fox News Wednesday afternoon that while Trump appears to have the authority to revoke the clearances, his actions come across as “petty and somewhat childish.”
“I think in this position as president of the United States, you’re going to be criticized, and people are going to disagree with you, and you have to accept that,” Gonzales said, casting doubt on the White House’s contention that the revocation was due to national security concerns.
The move comes one day after Brennan took to Twitter and cable TV to issue a particularly biting condemnation of Trump’s performance as president.
After Trump described his former aide Manigault Newman as “that dog,” Brennan responded on Twitter that the president’s rhetoric was “so disheartening, so dangerous for our Nation.”
“It’s astounding how often you fail to live up to minimum standards of decency, civility, & probity,” Brennan tweeted. “Seems like you will never understand what it means to be president, nor what it takes to be a good, decent, & honest person.”
Brennan later said in an interview on MSNBC Tuesday night that Trump had “badly sullied the reputation of the office of the presidency with his invective, with his constant disregard, I think, for human decency.”
He also took aim at what he cast as Trump’s cozy relationship with authoritarian leaders and argued that “America’s standing in the world has also been tarnished.”