National Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard on Monday revoked the security clearances of dozens of former senior officials – including former Secretary of State Antony Blinken, ex-National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan and the 51 intelligence executives who conjured up the story that Hunter Biden’s incriminating laptop was the work of Russian intelligence.
All their clearances were X-ed out on “X,” on which Gabbard wrote:
“Per @POTUS directive, I have revoked security clearances and barred access to classified information for Antony Blinken, Jake Sullivan, Lisa Monaco, Mark Zaid, Norman Eisen, Letitia James, Alvin Bragg, and Andrew 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.”
Gabbard’s move will send a tidal wave through Washington D.C.’s Tidal Basin. Creatures of “The Swamp,” plus allies in the media and Democratic Party, will raise a din. No matter. The intelligence chiefs who corrupted the profession in which I once took pride had it coming.
[Former C.I.A. agent John Kiriakou told Consortium News‘ CN Live! in February 2023 that while he was at the C.I.A. he often saw former senior agency officials hanging around headquarters discussing current intelligence and political matters. This should be harder to do now without their security clearances.]
Director Gabbard’s action is a clear warning that her boss told her to shut down the deep-state cottage industry of former spies able and willing to interfere in U.S. elections. Besides, a security clearance is a privilege, not an entitlement. President Trump said, “These are people we don’t respect.”
Trump has learned that the hard way – before and during his first term. The abundant evidence of intelligence officials meddling in domestic politics during the debunked Russiagate “scandal” justifies the step he ordered Gabbard to take.