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Brennan
Lashes Out After "Tyrant" Trump Revokes Security Clearance:
"Americans Should Gravely Worry"
15
August, 2018
Update:
As expected, former CIA Director Brennan has taken to Twitter to
express his dissatisfaction with the President's decision, claiming
that Trump's
move "should gravely worry all Americans" as
it is "part of a broader effort by Mr. Trump to suppress freedom
of speech & punish critics."
"I
will not relent," he
concludes...
This action is part of a broader effort by Mr. Trump to suppress freedom of speech & punish critics. It should gravely worry all Americans, including intelligence professionals, about the cost of speaking out. My principles are worth far more than clearances. I will not relent.
Brennan
immediately ran to his 'safe space' at MSNBC and raged hard...“I
do believe that Mr. Trump decided to take this action—as he's done
with others—to try to intimidate and suppress any criticism of him
or his administration,”
Brennan on @DeadlineWH:
Security clearances are a privilege, not a right, but revoking clearance for political reasons will have “a chilling effect,” and the press needs to shine a bright light on “this abuse of power” by the president.
“I do believe that Mr. Trump decided to take this action, as he’s done with others, to suppress any criticism of him or his administration … it’s his way of trying to get back at me.”
— John Brennan on @DeadlineWH after his security clearance was revoked. pic.twitter.com/xLqT4DZ1a7
*BRENNAN
ON MSNBC SAYS TRUMP BEHAVIOR IS 'TYRANT' LIKE
- *BRENNAN: TRUMP'S 'DISHONESTY' IS NOT SUITABLE FOR AMERICA
- *BRENNAN: TRUMP LETTING AMERICA DOWN WITH HIS BEHAVIOR, ACTIONS
- *BRENNAN: CRUCIAL THAT MUELLER INVESTIGATION CONTINUES
Additionally,
Brennan seemed surprised that he was not informed ahead of his
clearance revokation, saying
he “was called by a friend and associate when Sarah Huckabee
Sanders was giving that statement. So
I had no knowledge of it beforehand. No one contacted me. Nobody
reached out to me over the past several weeks when this issue had
first surfaced."
And
then states that he
is "not sure if there is any recourse to take on Trump's move,"
quickly shifting the narrative to claim that this move was to
distract from Omerosa.
*
* *
Three
weeks after we
reported that
Trump may revoke the security clearance for several former Obama
officials over politicized statements, including John Brennan, James
Clapper, Susan Rice, Peter Strzok, Lisa Page, Michael Hayden and
Bruce Ohr (Comey and McCabe had already lost their) - on
Wednesday White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders announced
that Donald Trump has decided to revoke former CIA Director Brennan's
Security Clearance.
JUST IN: Sarah Sanders reads statement from Pres. Trump revoking former CIA Director John Brennan's security clearance. abcn.ws/2hFejwL
Trump
accused Brennan of leveraging his former government status to make
"unfounded and outrageous" charges about his administration
in a statement read by White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee
Sanders at Wednesday's press briefing.
"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, the very aim of
our adversaries, which is to sow division and chaos," Trump said
in the statement read by Sanders.
“More
broadly, the issue of Mr. Brennan’s security clearances raises
questions about the practice of former officials maintaining access
to our nation’s sensitive secrets long after their time in
government has ended.”
In
justifying the revocation, the White House asserted that Brennan -
who has been highly critical of President Trump, including on Twitter
and as an NBC News and MSNBC analyst - "has history that calls
into question his objectivity and credibility."
Trump's
statement stated that "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."
“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,” said Sanders, adding “Neither
of these justifications supports Mr. Brennan’s continued access to
classified information."
Brennan
has been a vocal critic of Trump's presidency, regularly eviscerating
him on Twitter, and Trump previously had floated the idea of taking
away his clearance.
"As
the head of the executive branch and the commander in chief, I have a
unique constitutional responsibility to protect the nation's
classified information, including by controlling access to
it," Trump's
statement said.
Brennan's
"Stripping" took place just one day after the former CIA
chief tweeted the following:
It’s astounding how often you fail to live up to minimum standards of decency, civility, & probity. Seems like you will never understand what it means to be president, nor what it takes to be a good, decent, & honest person. So disheartening, so dangerous for our Nation.
It’s astounding how often you fail to live up to minimum standards of decency, civility, & probity. Seems like you will never understand what it means to be president, nor what it takes to be a good, decent, & honest person. So disheartening, so dangerous for our Nation.
Additionally,
Trump was reviewing access to classified information for several
former intelligence officials — all of whom have criticized Trump
publicly or have come under attack from the White House, according to
the statement. They include former Director of National Intelligence
James Clapper, former FBI Director James Comey, former National
Security Administration Director Michael Hayden, former Deputy
Attorney General Sally Yates, former National Security Adviser Susan
Rice, former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, former FBI agent
Peter Strzok, former FBI lawyer Lisa Page and Department of Justice
official Bruce Ohr.
As
the Hill notes, Past administration officials keep security
clearances in part to offer counsel and advice to their predecessors.
The idea is to ensure that officials acting in security roles can get
up-to-the-minute advice from past officials, who may be uniquely
positioned to offer it.
The clearances can also be quite valuable to those who have them, as companies can be keen to higher people with top security clearances. This is particularly true of career officials who move into post-government work, or officials who worked in sub-Cabinet political positions.
The
feud between Trump and Brennan goes back a ways, with the former CIA
chief regularly winning headlines and attention on cable news for
ripping into Trump. Most recently, he described Trump’s remarks
alongside Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki in July as
“nothing short of treasonous” and suggesting they exceeded the
threshold of impeachment for high crimes and misdemeanors.
Meanwhile,
in calling into question Brennan’s credibility, the White House
accused Brennan of falsely denying to Congress in 2014 that CIA
officials had improperly accessed congressional staffers’ computer
files. Trump
also suggested that Brennan lied when he told Congress that the
controversial Steele dossier was not used as a basis for the
intelligence community assessment of Russian interference in the 2016
election.
“More
recently, Mr. Brennan told Congress that the intelligence community
did not make use of the 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,”
Trump said in the statement.
* *
*
Predictably
there were immediate comments from both sides of the aisle, with CNN
security reporter Jim Sciutto summarizing that there is one thing all
those named above share: "they criticized the president."
Trump is also reviewing the security clearances of former DNI Clapper, former FBI Director @Comey, former Acting AG Yates & others. Together they have decades of intelligence experience. All share one thing: they criticized the president.
When
asked in July about Trump's threats to strip clearances from former
officials, Speaker Ryan said "I think he's trolling people
honestly."
White House says President Trump is also reviewing the security clearances of other former US national security officials, including vocal Trump critics such as former James Clapper, Jim Comey, Michael Hayden, Sally Yates, Susan Rice and Andrew McCabe.
Glenn
Greenwald took a more sarcastic approach:
Is there a GoFundMe campaign yet for John Brennan? Seeing liberals electronically transfer money to a former CIA Director - someone who advocated torture and rendition durng Bush/Cheney and lied about drone killings for Obama - is the final #Resistance frontier.
Is there a GoFundMe campaign yet for John Brennan? Seeing liberals electronically transfer money to a former CIA Director - someone who advocated torture and rendition durng Bush/Cheney and lied about drone killings for Obama - is the final #Resistance frontier.
BREAKING:
TRUMP WANTS CLINTON INDICTMENTS, CITES FBI COMEY STRZOK COVER UP
DURING EMAIL PROBE
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