HERE’S WHY TRUMP PULLED JOHN BRENNAN’S SECURITY CLEARANCE
Saagar Enjeti | White House Correspondent
The Daily Caller
President Donald Trump revoked former CIA Director John Brennan’s security clearance Wednesday, citing Brennan’s repeated public appearances attacking him and past behavior while in office in a lengthy statement.
Trump noted that the extension of security clearance to Brennan and other former officials was a courtesy and so that they could be consulted by current government officials for their expertise. The President however noted that “any benefits that senior officials might glean from consultations with Mr. Brennan are now outweighed by the risks posed by his erratic conduct and behavior.”
Trump cited Brennan’s past misstatements to Congress in 2014 about accessing congressional staffers emails and his discussion of the Steele dossier’s role in assessing Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.
The president took particular issue with Brennan’s status as a TV pundit who has been one of the most outspoken officials against his tenure, frequently calling him unfit for office. “Mr. Brennan has recently leveraged his status as a former high-ranking official with access to highly sensitive information to make a series of unfounded and outrageous allegations – wild outbursts on the internet and television — about this administration.”
Trump finally justified Brennan’s revoked security clearance noting 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.”