Since retaking office, Trump has revoked the security clearances of dozens of former U.S. officials.
President Donald Trump recently revoked the security clearances of a number of former U.S. officials.
In one such executive order—which revoked the clearances of former national security adviser John Bolton and dozens of former intelligence officers—Trump said that “the faith of Americans in all other patriotic intelligence professionals who are sworn to protect the Nation has been imperiled” by the actions of those named.
In the Jan. 20 order, Trump addressed his reasons for the revocation, saying, “Federal policymakers must be able to rely on analysis conducted by the Intelligence Community and be confident that it is accurate, crafted with professionalism, and free from politically motivated engineering to affect political outcomes in the United States.”
The order also cites Bolton’s 2019 memoir as an example of the mistreatment of classified information by intelligence officials. According to the White House, the memoir is “rife with sensitive information drawn from [Bolton’s] time in government” and has “undermined the ability of future presidents to request and obtain candid advice on matters of national security from their staff.”
The Hunter Biden Letter
The former intelligence officers named in the order had signed a letter advocating that emails reported by The New York Post to be retrieved from Hunter Biden’s laptop were most likely Russian propaganda.
The letter in question was issued a few weeks before the 2020 presidential election. Its signatories said it was their belief that the laptop was planted in opposition to then-candidate Joe Biden’s presidential campaign.
According to the letter, the NY Post’s report about the emails found on the laptop, which Hunter Biden reportedly abandoned at a repair shop in Delaware, was false and “part of a Russian disinformation campaign.” The emails outlined Hunter Biden’s dealings with China and in Ukraine, but did not show direct evidence of Biden benefiting from the deals as vice president. Then-candidate Biden later cited the letter during a 2020 debate against Trump.
Signatories for the letter included Director of National Intelligence James Clapper Jr., former CIA Acting Director Michael J. Morell, former CIA Director John Brennan, and former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta. Two of the 51 signers of the letter have since died, the executive order noted.
The executive order stripping the security clearances claims that the signatories of the letter “willfully weaponized the gravitas of the Intelligence Community to manipulate the political process and undermine our democratic institutions,” calling their actions “an egregious breach of trust reminiscent of a third world country.”
Three years later, in 2023, after the letter was widely cited in legacy media reports and the election was decided in Joe Biden’s favor, the letter was discredited when Morell testified before Congress that then-Biden campaign adviser Antony Blinken “triggered” the organization of the letter in order to “help Vice President Biden in the debate”
