8/16/2018

CIA/NATIONAL SECURITY/OBAMA ADMIN/RUSSIA INVESTIGATION/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “John O. Brennan, the C.I.A. director under President Barack Obama, struck back at President Trump on Thursday [8-16-18] for revoking his security clearance, calling the president’s claims of ‘no collusion’ with Russia to influence the 2016 election ‘hogwash’ and arguing that the commander in chief was trying to silence anyone who would dare challenge him…Mr. Trump’s decision to revoke the security clearance drew rebukes Thursday from national security officials and members of both political parties, who called it an extraordinary act of retaliation that reflected authoritarian tactics…In a statement on Wednesday [8-15-18], Mr. Trump cited what he called Mr. Brennan’s ‘erratic’ behavior and ‘increasingly frenzied commentary,’ as grounds for stripping the former intelligence chief of his access to classified information, saying that Mr. Brennan had abused his security clearance ‘to make a series of unfounded and outrageous allegations.’ Mr. Trump’s decision, announced on Wednesday by Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the press secretary, came only a few weeks after Ms. Sanders warned that Mr. Trump was considering revoking the clearances of Mr. Brennan and others who he believed had politicized and inappropriately profited from their access to delicate information. It was the latest assault by a president who has routinely questioned the loyalties of national security officials and dismissed some of their findings — particularly the conclusion that Moscow intervened in the 2016 election — as attacks against him.”

Julie Hirschfeld Davis and Michael D. Shear, “Ex-C.I.A. Director John Brennan Strikes Back After Trump Revokes His Security Clearance,”The New York Times online, August 16, 2018