President Trump issued a memo Friday rescinding the security clearances of more than a dozen individuals, including former President Joe Biden and his entire family, former Vice President Kamala Harris and Hillary Clinton.
“I have determined that it is no longer in the national interest for the following individuals to access classified information,” Trump wrote in the memo to the heads of executive departments and agencies, before naming those he’s barring from receiving classified information.
The list includes his three past presidential election opponents — Clinton, Biden and Harris — as well as Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and New York Attorney General Letitia James.
“Any other member of Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s family” will also be impacted by the memo.
Former Biden administration officials Antony Blinken, Jake Sullivan and Lisa Monaco are also on the list, as is anti-Trump Republicans Adam Kinzinger and Liz Cheney.
Alexander Vindman, a key witness who led to House Democrats impeaching Trump for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress in 2019; Fiona Hill, a former Trump administration official who also served as a witness in the impeachment over Trump’s phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky; Mark Zaid, who represented the whistleblower in the 2019 impeachment; Andrew Weissman, the lead prosecutor in former special counsel Robert Mueller’s Trump investigation; and Norman Eisen, special counsel to the Democrat-led House Judiciary Committee during the impeachment will all have their security clearance stripped as well.
“I hereby direct every executive department and agency head to take all additional action as necessary and consistent with existing law to revoke any active security clearances held by the aforementioned individuals and to immediately rescind their access to classified information,” Trump, 78, wrote.
The president also ordered executive department and agency heads to “revoke unescorted access to secure United States Government facilities from these individuals.”
Trump’s memo notes that he’s cutting off “classified briefings, such as the President’s Daily Brief, and access to classified information held by any member of the Intelligence Community by virtue of the named individuals’ previous tenure in the Congress” from the individuals on the list.
“In the event that any of the named individuals received a security clearance by virtue of their employment with a private entity, the United States Government entity that granted the security clearance should inform the private entity that these individuals’ ability to access classified information has been revoked,” the president wrote.
Trump told The Post last month that he planned on stripping the security clearances of several of his antagonists named in Friday’s memo.
On March 10, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard announced that she had completed a review of security clearances ordered by Trump and revoked those of Blinken, Sullivan, Monaco, Zaid, Eisen, James, Bragg, and Weissman, “along with the 51 signers of the Hunter Biden ‘disinformation’ letter.”
“The President’s Daily Brief is no longer being provided to former President Biden,” she added.
Trump argued in a Truth Social post last month that Biden set the precedent when he barred him from receiving access to the same briefings four years ago, citing Trump’s “erratic behavior.”
Biden, 82, blocked Trump from receiving intelligence briefings in February 2021, telling CBS News that the 45th president should not be privy to US secrets “because of his erratic behavior unrelated to the insurrection,” referring to the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.
”I just think that there is no need for him to have that intelligence briefing,” Biden added. “What value is giving him an intelligence briefing? What impact does he have at all, other than the fact he might slip and say something?”
Ex-presidents and other former senior officials customarily retain access to classified information.
Allowing former presidents to continue to receive intelligence briefings has historically been done in case a sitting president needs to consult with his predecessor for advice on how to handle a particular situation.
Trump has also signed executive orders stripping law firms Perkins Coie and Paul Weiss from access to security clearances, citing Perkins Coie’s involvement in commissioning the infamous “Steele Dossier and former Paul Weiss partner Mark Pomerantz’s involvement in Bragg’s hush money payments case against Trump.
Perkins Coie has sued Trump over the order and Paul Weiss reached an agreement with the president on Friday to have him rescind the directive.
