President Donald Trump revoked the security clearances of New York Attorney General Letitia James, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, former Secretary of State Antony Blinken, former National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, and multiple other individuals on Saturday.
According to The New York Post, the latest batch of Democrats to have their security clearances stripped by the president will be barred from entering certain federal buildings and from accessing classified information.
In an interview with The New York Post, Trump said, “This is to take away every right they have [revoking security clearances] including they can’t go into [federal] buildings.”
While The New York Post noted that Trump’s order is largely symbolic with regard to stripping the security clearances of James and Bragg, the New York Democrat officials who have prosecuted Trump could face difficulties carrying out their official responsibilities if they are prevented from entering federal prisons, courthouses, U.S. attorney’s offices, and law enforcement facilities.
According to The New York Post, Trump also confirmed that Blinken’s security clearance would be revoked. “Bad guy,” Trump said. “Take away his passes.” The Post Millennial reported that Blinken was the official responsible for the letter citing multiple intelligence agents that falsely claimed the Hunter Biden laptop story was Russian misinformation.
In addition to stripping the security clearances of James, Bragg, and Blinken, Trump also revoked the security clearances of former National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan; former Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco; Andrew Weissman, the lead prosecutor in Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Trump; lawyer Mark Zaid, who represented the whistleblower responsible for sparking the 2019 Trump impeachment effort; and Norm Eisen, the special counsel to the Judiciary Committee during the Trump impeachment effort.
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According to The New York Post, Trump explained that the latest batch of individuals to have their security clearances revoked will experience “exactly the same” punishment as former President Joe Biden and dozens of other government officials who have had their security clearances stripped for mishandling classified information or interfering in U.S. elections.
Trump’s decision to strip security clearances from multiple anti-Trump officials and former Biden-Harris administration leaders comes after the president revoked Biden’s security clearances and access to daily intelligence briefings last week.
“I don’t trust him,” Trump told The New York Post. “He’s not worthy of trust … To safeguard national security.”
Addressing his decision to revoke security clearances for many of his political adversaries, Trump told reporters, “There are people that we don’t respect. If there are people that we thought that were breaking the law, that came very close to it in previous years, we do it. And we’ve done it with some people.”