Senate Intelligence Committee vice chairman Mark Warner, D-Va., said Friday he plans on introducing an amendment next week that will prohibit President Trump from stripping critics of their security clearances.
“I will be introducing an amendment next week to block the President from punishing and intimidating his critics by arbitrarily revoking security clearances,” Warner tweeted. “Stay tuned.”
[Related: John Brennan ready to take legal action to stop Trump from revoking other security clearances]
I will be introducing an amendment next week to block the President from punishing and intimidating his critics by arbitrarily revoking security clearances. Stay tuned.
— Mark Warner (@MarkWarner) August 17, 2018
Warner will be introducing an amendment to the “minibus” appropriations bill that includes funding for the Departments of Defense, Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, his spokeswoman clarified.
The amendment is unlikely to garner support among Republicans who have supported Trump’s decision this week to revoke former CIA Director John Brennan’s security clearance. Brennan has been a vocal critic of the president, often appearing on cable news to denounce Trump.
White House press secretary Sarah Sanders announced from the briefing room podium Wednesday that Trump was revoking the former CIA director’s security clearance over his “erratic behavior.”
Trump is also considering revoking the clearances of other former U.S. officials, she said. Those officials include former FBI Director James Comey, former national security adviser Susan Rice, former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, and former deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe. Department of Justice attorney Bruce Ohr is also on the list, Trump said Friday.
Comey and McCabe already lost their clearances when they were fired.
“This is an attempt to distract the American public from those items that this White House faces on a daily basis. I guess to me this had an eerie memory of an enemies list,” Warner told reporters Wednesday.
“These people were being singled out to have either their clearances revoked or in the process of being revoked to me smacks of Nixonian-type practices of trying to silence anyone who’s willing to criticize this president. That puts us again in uncharted territory,” he continued.
