Trump may revoke ex-Obama officials’ clearance

President Donald Trump is considering revoking the security clearances of six former Obama-era officials who have been critical of his administration, a move that opponents say would be an unprecedented politicization of the clearance process.

White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Monday that the president is “exploring the mechanisms” to strip clearance from former CIA Director John Brennan as well as five other former top national security officials: former FBI Director Jim Comey, James Clapper, Michael Hayden, Susan Rice and Andrew McCabe.

The comments came hours after Republican Sen. Rand Paul, of Kentucky, tweeted that he was planning to talk to Trump about revoking Brennan’s clearance. Brennan had offered particularly scathing criticism of the president’s performance at a summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin last week, tweeting that Trump was “wholly in the pocket of Putin.”

Former CIA directors and other top national security officials are typically allowed to keep their clearances, at least for a period, so they can be in a position to advise their successors. At least one of the former officials, ex-FBI Deputy Director McCabe, does not currently have security clearance, his spokeswoman said.

Sanders accused the officials of having “politicized and in some cases monetized their public service and security clearances” by “making baseless accusations of improper contact with Russia or being influenced by Russia.”