President Trump is considering revoking the security clearances of several former intelligence and national security officials who have been critical of his administration, the White House said Monday.
“Not only is the president looking to take away [Former CIA Director John] Brennan’s security clearance, he’s also looking into the clearances of Comey, Clapper, Hayden, Rice and McCabe,” press secretary Sarah Sanders told reporters.
[James Clapper: ‘Petty thing’ for Trump to consider revoking critics’ security clearances]
Sanders was referring to five officials who served under the Obama administration: former FBI Director James Comey, former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, former National Security Agency Director Michael Hayden, former national security adviser Susan Rice, and former Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe.
The White House accused those individuals of having “politicized and monetized” their access to U.S. intelligence and national security secrets.
“As of right now, we are exploring the mechanism on those specific names,” Sanders said.
Sanders rejected the idea that Trump was considering the move as a way to punish his political enemies, and said the issue was how people with a security clearance were abusing that privilege.
“The president is exploring these mechanisms to remove security clearances because they politicized and in some cases actually monetized their public service and their security clearances, and making baseless accusations of improper contact with Russia or being influenced by Russia against the president is extremely inappropriate,” Sanders said.
“The president contends that the fact that people with security clearances are making these baseless charges provides inappropriate legitimacy to accusations with zero evidence,” she added.
When pressed again on whether the move was aimed at punishing his enemies, Sanders shot back, “I think you are creating your own story there.”
“The president doesn’t like the fact that people are politicizing agencies and departments that are specifically meant to not be political and not meant to be monetized off of security clearances,” she said.
