Trump Revokes Former DCI John Brennan’s Security Clearnace
After having hinted that he would do so back in July, President Trump today revoked former Director Central Intelligence John Brennan’s security clearance. The announcement was read by Press Secretary Sanders:
"I’ve exercised my constitutional authority to deny Mr. Brennan access to classified information,” Sarah Huckabee Sanders said, revoking the security clearance of former Obama administration CIA director John Brennan. pic.twitter.com/ExjpwfIGgm
— POLITICO (@politico) August 15, 2018
In July, the White House announced that it was considering taking such action, which amounts to an unprecedented use of presidential authority to punish political rivals. At the time, critics quickly seized on the announcement, even as those under consideration downplayed the effect losing their clearances might have.
Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats was not consulted on revoking Brennan’s clearance, an official with knowledge told CNN’s Jim Sciutto. Coats is the top intelligence official working in government and was appointed by Trump.
Sanders’ statement Wednesday cited the CIA’s infiltration of Senate computers during Brennan’s time at the helm of the agency as a reason for the decision, adding that Brennan has “recently leveraged his status” as a former official to “make a series of unfounded allegations” about the administration, which she called “increasingly frenzied commentary.”
So what does it mean? In the short term the reactions will probably fall along the lines of what the responders already thought about President Trump. Critics will claim Brennan as patriotism incarnate for opposing the president and being oppressed while MAGA land will paint him as a traitor, or worse, for defying the president.
In reality it is mostly a symbolic gesture. Most of the targets from President Trump’s July list of potential revocations no longer have clearance. Brennan would have been entitled to retain his for 5 years, unless some unknown measures were taken, which would have expired January 2022. Some will cry out about Brennan’s “free speech” being infringed on, but security clearances are not silencing. The experts will argue over the particulars, but security clearances and classified information is established as within the discretion of the executive, so any pushback would be limited. Even James Clapper, also subject of the Trump Administrations ire for his outspoken criticism, admits the president can do so as he pleases:
“I think this is just a very, very petty thing to do. And that’s about all I’ll say about it,” (Former Obama DNI James) Clapper said on CNN immediately after Sanders’ briefing.
“There is a formal process for doing this,” he added. “But, you know, legally the President has that prerogative and he can suspend and revoke clearances as he sees fit. If he chooses to do it for political reasons, I think that’s a terrible precedent and it’s a really sad commentary and its an abuse of the system.”
Hayden, meanwhile, indicated being stripped of his clearance would be of little consequence to his commentary.
“I don’t go back for classified briefings. Won’t have any effect on what I say or write,” he tweeted.
The CIA declined to comment on the announcement.
In short, it’s a very Trump-like thing to do; Small on consequence, big on turmoil caused, and comes off as petty and personally motivated.
Along with all the firings of FBI officials who have angered and investigated Trump this is just another instance of attacking/hurting critics. Yeah this is petty and personal but its also an attempt to give consequences to people who criticize him.Report
It’s all part of a long con. From the Washington Examiner, July 22:
Of course, the theory that the Deep State had it in for Trump during the campaign relies on demonstrable incompetence on the part of the actors who kept inadvertently suppressing all the dirt on Trump they “fabricated” at the timeReport
From the Wall St Journal today:
He’s marginalizing everyone who was around during the origins of the investigation – Comey, Yates, McCabe – and revoking security clearances held by people who left after the inauguration. This is Banana Republic stuff. The GOP Congress is along for the ride.Report
It won’t hurt Brennan or most of the retirees being threatened, but it will have a chilling effect on everyone still working in the IC community.
This basically implies that if someone angers Trump, by say cooperating with Mueller’s investigation (a DOJ investigation that they are obligated to cooperate with btw), they could find themselves without a job because Trump has revoked their security clearance.
We are way down the road to Banana Republic here.Report
I don’t know that it won’t hurt Brennan either. National security experts often end up going into private industry and continuing to work in the natsec field. In fact, Brennan worked for exactly those types of companies in the years before Obama brought him back to government work. Making him unable to maintain a security clearance pretty much blacklists him from most of his chosen field. Maybe he was planning to retire completely? I don’t know what he’s been up to since leaving government service.
I also don’t get the idea that pulling someone’s security clearance to punish them for protected speech isn’t silencing. If they’d taken his house or thrown him in prison, we wouldn’t be saying, “Well, he can still speak out, so it’s not silencing.” The government taking adverse action against someone solely to punish them for protected speech is pretty obviously a free speech issue.Report
So the First Amendment protects someone’s right to receive classified national security briefings? I’ll file a lawsuit tomorrow because I haven’t been getting those.Report
The problem is that at the bottom level of political appointees, and the top level of career staff, it has been typical for the person moving into the position to be able to consult with his/her predecessor. By stripping the predecessor’s clearance quickly, Trump blocks such consultation and a big chunk of institutional memory is lost. Even at the level of government where I was staff, loss of institutional memory was a big deal. Within the intelligence community, where security classifications mean there’s no chance to “groom” a replacement before hand, such losses must be an even bigger deal.Report
No. There’s no first amendment right to have any of the things you legitimately have, but there is a first amendment right not to have those things taken from you for protected political speech.
If he’d had a nice house and the government used eminent domain to take it from him and then did nothing with it, it would be pretty obvious that that was punishment for his protected speech. You wouldn’t say, “There’s a first amendment right to a nice house? I don’t have one of those, so I should sue the government to give me a house!” because that would be dumb.
I guess people are carving out a weird exception for this one form of punishment for speech because working in national security isn’t part of their normal experience and they don’t get how this stuff works?Report
Have you talked to people who hold security clearances in the military? They are not allowed to pop up on CNN to scream that the President is a traitor, while using their access to classified information to do harm to the United States. In fact, they would likely get discharged or sent to Leavenworth for that.
Retaining a security clearance after leaving government service is contingent on behavior. If an individual’s trustworthiness is in doubt, the clearance is often revoked. We didn’t set up a government to serve the business interests of retired government officials, no matter how much those retirees wish we had.Report
while using their access to classified information to do harm to the United States.
wait, are you admitting the existence of classified info about Trump which, if revealed, would do harm to his Presidency?
Welcome to the Resistance, comrade.Report
Active duty military are not allowed to pop up on CNN to scream the President is a traitor for reasons that have nothing to do with the regs on security clearances.Report
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Hell, when Wikileaks published all that classified info a while back a lot of defense contractors blocked that website because viewing classified info (even if it’s made public it’s STILL classified, could jeopardize folks who had clearances.Report
Who’s writting up Kelly for his Practices Dangerous to Security (PDS) incident?Report
As @kolohe pointed out, that’s because they’re in the military, not because they have security clearances. If Brennan was active duty military, I’d have been stunned if Trump hadn’t canned him for talking like that. It would be completely unacceptable. But he’s not.
I’m very well aware. But “don’t publicly criticize POTUS” is not one of those rules. The country is full of private citizens who work in national security. They’re not in the military and they don’t report to the executive, and they get to keep their jobs as long as they remain loyal to the US and follow the rules. Blacklisting them if they oppose the president is not OK. It’s not even a good idea if it was OK.Report
We’re recovering from the banana republic part. That’s what we had under Obama when the heads of various state security agencies took action to try and select who we could have as President, that of course being the person who would let them continue to wield and abuse the powers of state security agencies. Brennan himself spied on the legislative committee that was responsible for looking into CIA abuses.
All this misbehavior flowed from their arrogance, narcissism, and lack of self-understanding. In just about every East-Bloc country, banana Republic, and tin-pot dictatorship, the people entrusted to run “state security” start to think their job is protecting the government from the will of the people by destroying any politician or person who disapproves of their political power. They’re righteously and zealously protecting the state, and Brennan and Comey are not a bit different, having fallen into the same self-delusion that they are some kind of specially annointed protector who get to choose who allowed to be in charge.
A bigger question is how Brennan, who voted for the American Communist Party candidate, ever had a security clearance at all. That’s a bigger red flag than having been a Nazi party member. Heck, after the war we got along very well with many Nazi party members, such as Werner von Braun, and we paid Germany’s top interrogator of captured Americans to teach the DoD how to conduct effective interrogations.Report
Its astounding to me how swiftly and completely the right has adopted the talking points of the Chomsky/ Zinn leftists of the 1970s.
The rant above could be spliced into a speech by a college radical from 1975 and no one could tell the difference.
And notice we never heard any of this Deep State stuff prior to January 2017. In 2001-2016 we were told by Fox News that patriotism required us to entrust the government with the power to torture suspected terrorists, that we should truest the intelligence agencies to snatch American citizens from anywhere in the world and hold them in Gitmo without charge or trial.
Yet suddenly in January 2017, these same agencies morphed into something called the Deep State, a term which was almost unknown here in America.
But now of course, we have always been at war with the Deep State.Report
No, sorry. When the government or its executive is allowed to use its power to silence critics, that is a violation of the 1st Amendment. You know, part of the Constitution, which those who work for the government, including in security agencies, have sworn to uphold. Of course, Trump also swore to uphold it at his inauguration. If he’s discarding such a fundamental principle (with the approval of his base, it seems) why should we expect him to hold to any others?
If the president becomes a de facto dictator, allowed to disregard the principles the country was founded upon, then we are down banana republic road.
Also, Brennan voted for a communist party candidate? Um, I’m not a big of Brennan’s but I know a red herring when I see one. There is a rest of the story, which easily checkable.
But I’m curious now to see what the talking points will be against all of the others whose clearances Trump is threatening to revoke. As well as against retired Adm. McRaven (former member of SEAL Team 6, the former Commander of Joint Special Operations Command who planned and oversaw Operation Neptune Spear, and the former Commanding Admiral of US Special Operations Command) who recently spoke out against Trump’s use of power to intimidate and silence critics, and retired 4 Star General McCaffery who agreed with him.Report