Trump administration revokes security clearances of 37 U.S. officials
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Tulsi Gabbard, director of National Intelligence, at the White House in July. Photo: Eric Lee/Bloomberg via Getty Images
The Trump administration revoked the security clearances of 37 current and former officials on Tuesday that it accused of "politicization or weaponization" to "advance personal, partisan or non-objective agendas."
The big picture: National Intelligence director Tulsi Gabbard publicly released a memo naming the officials, which Mark Zaid, a lawyer who represents intelligence officers and who's suing the Trump administration to have his revoked security clearance restored, said may have broken the law.
Driving the news: Gabbard accused the officials in an X post on the administration's latest move to revoke security clearances of "politicizing and manipulating intelligence, leaking classified intelligence without authorization, and/or committing intentional egregious violations of tradecraft standards."
- Neither the memo nor Gabbard's post detailed evidence on these claims, but among the intelligence community public servants included in the list are officials who were involved in assessments on Russia's efforts to interfere in the 2016 election and others who worked on national security under former Presidents Biden and Obama.
- Others signed a letter supporting the impeachment inquiry into President Trump on allegations that he pressured Ukraine, which far-right activist Laura Loomer amplified last month as she noted some still held security clearances.
What they're saying: Zaid wrote on X in response to Gabbard's post: "Can you say 'Privacy Act violation'? I certainly can. Further proof of weaponization and politicization. The vast majority of these individuals are not household names & are dedicated public servants who have worked across multiple presidential administrations."
- He said in a Tuesday night email that information regarding someone's security clearance "is maintained in a protected Privacy Act System of records" and the government "cannot simply release that information without written consent from the individual or the existence of a Routine Use, which I do not believe exists for this purpose."
- Representatives for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence did not immediately respond to Axios' Tuesday evening request for comment on the matter.
Of note: Loomer noted on X that she had previously called for the security clearance of one of those named in the memo to be revoked, adding: "Thank you, Tulsi! MORE SCALPS."
- That official worked under then-director of National Intelligence James Clapper on an Intelligence Community Assessment that found Russia interfered in the first election that President Trump won, a conclusion that received bipartisan support in Congress.
- However, Gabbard last month accused the Obama administration of a "manipulation of intelligence" around Russia's role in the 2016 election.
Flashback: On his first day in office, Trump revoked the security clearances of 51 former intelligence officials who signed a letter in 2020 saying emails from Hunter Biden's laptop carried "classic earmarks of a Russian information operation."
- In February, he pulled former President Biden's access to classified information and stopping his daily intelligence briefings.
- Trump has also revoked the security clearance of retired Gen. Mark Milley, a former Joint Chiefs of Staff chair, who once called him "fascist to the core."
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