Ex-CIA director who had clearance revoked by Trump speaks out on MSNBC | Fox News
By: Lindsay Kornick (Fox News)
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Ex-CIA head John Brennan claims Trump misrepresented Hunter Biden laptop events
Former CIA Director John Brennan discussed his thoughts on President Donald Trumps executive order revoking his and several other officers security clearances.
Ex-CIA Director John Brennan claimed President Donald Trump had "misrepresented the facts" on the Hunter Biden laptop story after his security clearance was revoked Tuesday.
By executive order, Trump revoked the security clearances of the 51 former intel officials who signed the 2020 letter claiming that the release of emails from the laptop had "all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation." Many of them were open supporters at the time of Joe Biden's presidential campaign against Trump.
The signatories said in the letter they did not know if the emails "are genuine or not and that we do not have evidence of Russian involvement -- just that our experience makes us deeply suspicious that the Russian government played a significant role in this case."
Brennan, who was among the signers, called the executive order "bizarre" and claimed Trump distorted the letter.
Former CIA director John Brennan called out President Donald Trump's view of the Hunter Biden laptop story.(Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)
"Signatories of the letter falsely suggested that the news story was part of a Russian disinformation campaign," Trump's executive order said of "the former intelligence officials who engaged in misleading and inappropriate political coordination with the 2020 Biden presidential campaign."
"He misrepresented the facts in that executive order because it said that we had suggested that the Hunter Biden laptop story was Russian disinformation," Brennan said on MSNBC Tuesday. "No, we said it was all the hallmarks of Russian information operations, including the dumping of accurate information, which is what we said in that letter."
"So, again, this was just, you know, his effort to try to get back at those individuals who have criticized him openly and publicly in the past, and I think very legitimately," he said.
Other officials named in the EO include former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper Jr., former CIA director Michael Hayden, former Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta and former National Security Advisor John Bolton.
Three days after the letter was made public, Biden used it as a talking point in the final 2020 presidential debate to rebut criticisms made by Trump.
"There are 50 former national intelligence folks who said that what this, he's accusing me of, is a Russian plan," Biden said during the debate.
Shortly after taking office, President Trump revoked Brennan's and 50 others' security clearances by executive order.(AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
In 2023, it was reported that the Department of Justice had known since December 2019 that Hunter Biden's laptop contained "reliable evidence" and was "not manipulated in any way."
Brennan said that Trump had previously announced he would revoke his security clearance in 2018, but his clearance was not taken away.
"The only reason why I still had a security clearance, as I have for the past number of years since I left government service, was for the benefit of the government, so that if the CIA or another government agency wanted to call me in to discuss a classified matter, they could do that," Brennan said.
He added, "And so it was really for the government's benefit. It was to facilitate those classified discussions with myself, as well as with former directors, as well as other former members of the intelligence community that had those clearances."
Former CIA Director John Brennan discussed the executive order on MSNBC's "Andrea Mitchell Reports" Tuesday.(MSNBC screenshot)
Brennan has appeared regularly on MSNBC as a senior national security analyst and is one of Trump's harshest critics.
In a Feb. 2024 appearance on the network, Brennan claimed that Russia is using Republican politicians "as tools."
Fox News' David Spector contributed to this report.
Lindsay Kornick is an associate editor for Fox News Digital. Story tips can be sent to lindsay.kornick@fox.com and on Twitter: @lmkornick.
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Brennan lied and violated the peoples trust and no longer has the privilege of carrying a TS security clearance, actions have consequences, and a group of liars just received theirs.
A “former” communist. Should never have in national security to begin with,
The idea that Trump is a reliable authority over who should or should not have a security clearance is ridiculous.
Clearances aren't vetted through him entirely. Now given he is the POTUS, he does have a say in the matter.
Brennen's "team" lied about the laptop, that falls as his failure. There is a loss of trust and naturally pulling his clearance makes perfect sense. On top of that he is the EX head, he's no longer part of the organization and should not have access to anything.
After four years of the Biden/Harris administration the criteria of "reliable authority" doesn't really mean anything any longer. Trump is just as (if not more) competent as was Joe Biden in making these decisions.
Trump's security clearance should have been revoked when he said that he believed Vladimir Putin over the US intelligence agencies, and when a bipartisan Senate committee vote affirmed that the Trump campaign welcomed Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, and when the Mueller Report suggested Trump could be prosecuted for obstruction of justice once he left office. And when he tried to extort another country into investigating his political opponent.
Now Brennan has less value as an anonymous, insider source of government intelligence for NBC. Will Brennan be announcing his retirement soon?
Oh, that makes it much better, an obvious attempt at a loophole if you get caught after the damage is done. Only a fool would fall for it.
And the fools did.
Hook line and sinker, the less intelligent are still bleating trump wanted Russian interference.