Trump Weighs Stripping Security Clearances From Officials Who Criticized Him

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump threatened Monday to strip the security clearances of former national security officials who have criticized his refusal to confront Russia over its election interference, a move that would apply the powers of the presidency to retaliate against some of his most outspoken detractors.

Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the White House press secretary, said Trump was considering revoking the clearances of John Brennan, the former CIA director; James Comey, fired by Trump as FBI director last year; and James R. Clapper Jr., the former director of national intelligence, among others.

“The president is exploring the mechanisms to remove security clearances because they politicized and in some cases monetized their public service and security clearances,” Sanders said.

The suggestion was an unusual politicization of the security clearance process and is the latest turn in an effort by Trump to deflect scrutiny from his meeting last week with President Vladimir Putin of Russia, whom he sided with over his own intelligence community in casting doubt about whether Moscow attacked the 2016 presidential election.

She also said Trump is looking to strip the security clearance of Susan Rice, President Barack Obama’s national security adviser, and Michael V. Hayden, the former head of the CIA and National Security Agency during the George W. Bush administration.

She also singled out Andrew McCabe, the former deputy director of the FBI, who was fired this year over a lack of candor about his dealings with reporters. McCabe does not have an active security clearance. Comey has also had no security clearance for about a year, according to a person briefed on the matter.

Security clearances allow former officials to work with companies on classified programs and provide advice to those firms and sometimes to government agencies. Stripping their clearances could harm their ability to work as consultants and advisers in Washington.

Sanders’ announcement came hours after Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., said he would be meeting with Trump and raising the issue of stripping Brennan of his security clearance.

Following the meeting Monday afternoon, Paul said in a post on Twitter that he had told the president “what I have said in public: John Brennan and others partisans should have their security clearances revoked.”

“Public officials should not use their security clearances to leverage speaking fees or network talking head fees,” Paul added.

Trump has had a long-standing obsession with questioning the professionalism of former intelligence and national security officials who served under Obama, accusing them of being partisans who politicized their findings for the sole purpose of tarnishing him. After he met with Putin last fall on the sideline of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Danang, Vietnam, Trump savaged them publicly while suggesting that he believed the Russian leader.

“They are political hacks,” Trump said then. “So you look at it, I mean, you have Brennan, you have Clapper, and you have Comey. Comey is proven now to be a liar, and he is proven now to be a leaker. So you look at that and you have President Putin very strongly, vehemently says he had nothing to do with that.”

Hayden, in a Twitter post, said the removal of his security clearance would not affect what he said publicly. He also said he does not go to the White House for classified briefings.