After announcing he was removing the security clearance of former CIA director John Brennan, Trump also said that he is considering revoking the clearance of several other former intelligence and law enforcement officials — many of whom have been critical of him — in the coming weeks.
Those people include:
- Former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper
- Former FBI director James Comey
- Former NSA director Michael Hayden
- Former acting attorney general Sally Yates
- Former national security adviser Susan Rice
- Former FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe
- Former FBI agent Peter Strzok
- FBI lawyer Lisa Page
- Justice Department official Bruce Ohr
Trump’s not shutting them down as libs like to say, he’s just limiting their access to what they can have. Brennan leaked the contents of the fake dossier against trump to Sen. Harry Reid who leaked it to the press. He purposely pushed Hilary’s lies about Russian collusion to the public so he could sway an election. That is a gross abuse of power. He should have his security clearance revoked. The official rules of the CIA state that an employee can retain their clearance after they leave as long as they continue to act like a regular employee. Brennan clearly did not.
Comey was a leaker and absconded with government documents after he left so he should have his clearance revoked. McCabe, the No,2 at the F.B.I. is under investigation so he should have his revoked. Peter Strzok was just fired so he should have his revoked. James Clapper committed perjury a while back so his should be removed,
All these people had security clearances when Russia tried to interfere with the election yet did nothing to prevent it, they did nothing to stop China from stealing our technology and they did nothing to stop North Korea’s missile build-up.
Meanwhile, Hollywood celebrities are calling Brennan a man who supported a communist in an election, a patriot and attacking Trump for taking away his security. Are we supposed to be comforted by the idea that Celebrities, who are famous for nothing more than being famous and reciting lines written for them by someone else, think they are qualified to decide who is to have and to retains national security clearances? I think they have surrendered their rational minds to their shallow and meaningless “Celebrity Privilege”.
At Wednesday’s press briefing Sarah Sanders read a statement issued by Trump on Taking away Brennan’s security clearance.:
As the head of the executive branch and Commander-in-Chief, I have a unique constitutional responsibility to protect the nation’s classified information, including by controlling access to it. Today, in fulfilling that responsibility, I have decided to revoke the security clearance of John Brennan, former Director of the Central Intelligence Agency.
Historically, former heads of intelligence and law enforcement agencies have been allowed to retain access to classified information after their government service so that they can consult with their successors regarding matters about which they may have special insights and as a professional courtesy.
Neither of these justifications supports Mr. Brennan’s continued access to classified information. First, at this point in my administration, any benefits that senior officials might glean from consultations with Mr. Brennan are now outweighed by the risks posed by his erratic conduct and behavior. Second, that conduct and behavior has tested and far exceeded the limits of any professional courtesy that may have been due to him.
Mr. Brennan has a history that calls into question his objectivity and credibility. In 2014, for example, he denied to Congress that CIA officials, under his supervision, had improperly accessed the computer files of congressional staffers. He told the Council of Foreign Relations that the CIA would never do such a thing. The CIA’s Inspector General, however, contradicted Mr. Brennan directly, concluding unequivocally that agency officials had indeed improperly accessed congressional staffers’ files. More recently, Mr. Brennan told Congress that the intelligence community did not make use of the so-called Steele dossier in an assessment regarding the 2016 election, an assertion contradicted by at least two other senior officials in the intelligence community and all of the facts.
Additionally, 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. 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 [facilitates] the very aim of our adversaries, which is to sow division and chaos.
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.
Such access is particularly inappropriate when former officials have transitioned into highly partisan positions and seek to use real or perceived access to sensitive information to validate their political attacks. Any access granted to our nation’s secrets should be in furtherance of national, not personal, interests. For this reason, I’ve also begun to review the more general question of the access to classified information by government officials.
As part of this review, I am evaluating action with respect to the following individuals: James Clapper, James Comey, Michael Hayden, Sally Yates, Susan Rice, Andrew McCabe, Peter Strzok, Lisa Page, and Bruce Ohr.
Security clearances for those who still have them may be revoked, and those who have already lost their security clearance may not be able to have it reinstated.
It is for the foregoing reasons that I have exercised my constitutional authority to deny Mr. Brennan access to classified information, and I will direct appropriate staff of the National Security Council to make the necessary arrangements with the appropriate agencies to implement this determination.
Following reading his statement, Sarah took questions from reporters. One reporter asked accused trump of getting back at his enemies and curtailing freedom of speech.
“Hey, Sarah. Following up Jon’s question, how is this announcement by the President — how can Americans not interpret that as a “getting back against his critics”? And isn’t it also an attempt to curtail their freedom of speech by penalizing them for being critical on television?”
She replied, “Not at all. The President has a constitutional responsibility to protect classified information, and who has access to it. And that’s what he’s doing is fulfilling that responsibility in this action.”
If these corrupt heads of the FBI and CIA would do their jobs instead of concentrating on rigging the election and their hatred for Trump and if the media would honestly and truthfully report the news accurately and fairly instead of their excessive fawning over the loss of their Queen Hillary along with their endless Russia, Russia, Russia fixation along with their endless Stormy, Stormy, Stormy and now Omarosa, Omarosa, Omarosa 24/7 we wouldn’t be having all this division. They are the ones complaining that Trump is calling them the enemy of the people when they prove that they are over and over. They were silent, with regard to Benghazi, the IRS scandal, the VA Scandal, Fast and Furious, spying on Congress, spying on the press, the Promise Program (kids bringing drugs, knives, guns etc. to schools) and these kids were not prosecuted. Who did all of the above? Oh, it was Obama and the Press who were silent. So, in essence, there is no “free press”. And they are the enemy of the people.
America’s Mayor and President Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani revealed on a recent episode of “Hannity” who he believes is the person responsible for initiating the entire Mueller investigation.
That individual is none other than former CIA Director John Brennan.
“She(Hillary) got off because of that fixed investigation. A totally phony fixed investigation run by Peter Strzok who then turns around, the dossier is obtained on the day that they dropped the case against Trump — against Hillary. So that case gets dropped and they had to even up the score,” Giuliani stated.
“The reality is I’m going to tell you. We don’t have the time to go into it, we can do it later, I’m going to tell you who was the quarterback for all of this. It isn’t just Strzok. Strzok is a bit of a puppet. Then there’s Mueller, he’s a puppet. The people working for him, some of them are,” he continued.
Hannity cut of Giuliani saying, “I have a funny feeling you are about to drop a bomb on me.”
…“Well the guy running it is [John] Brennan and he should be in front of a grand jury. Brennan took an affidavit – a dossier, unless he’s the biggest idiot intelligence agent that ever existed,
Giuliani, President Trump’s lead counsel, said Trump will not sit down with Mueller after Sept. 1, and they are ready to counter any negative report issued by Mueller. According to Giuliani, the president is willing to sit down with Mueller under limited conditions. However, the president wants to avoid any meetings taking place after Sept. 1, so as to not interfere with November’s midterms.
I couldn’t agree more….I, for one, was unaware that clearance was extended past their tenure.
I can ‘name names’ for all but Hayden, not quite sure he’s a target.
While I see the ‘value’ of some keeping them when they leave, it seems that it could change to a ‘temporary’ and time limited.
I figure that the ones on the ‘list’ already managed to ‘save’ enough money from their ‘salary; to keep them in tall cotton without becoming a talking head…..Of course I would never suggest that all monies were, uh, dare I say, from less that honorable means.