Washington DC:
After Joe Biden, US President Donald Trump has revoked the security clearances of his Secretary of State Antony Blinken and former national security adviser Jake Sullivan, White House officials said on Saturday. The move came a day after Trump revoked his predecessor Biden’s security clearance and stopped his access to daily intelligence briefings.
In a new series of rapid-fire power plays, the 78-year-old billionaire also revoked security clearances for former President Biden’s Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco, who helped coordinate the Department of Justice’s response to the January 6, 2021, attacks on the US Capitol, the officials said.
Clearances of the New York Attorney General Letitia James and Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg who led cases against Trump were also removed, the officials added.
‘Tit For Tat Move’
Revoking Biden’s security clearance, Trump on Friday said, “There is no need for Joe Biden to continue receiving access to classified information.”
“Therefore, we are immediately revoking Joe Biden’s Security Clearances, and stopping his daily Intelligence Briefings,” he wrote on his his Truth Social network.
In a reference to the catchphrase of his former reality TV show “The Apprentice,” Trump added in capitals: “JOE, YOU’RE FIRED.”
US presidents are traditionally given the right to receive intelligence briefings even after they step down.
Trump said he was making the move because Democrat Biden had removed his own security clearance after winning the 2020 election. At the time, Biden had cited Trump’s “erratic behaviour” both before and after the January 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol by protesters trying to overturn Trump’s election loss.
In his post on Friday, Trump claimed that Biden “could not be trusted” with intelligence briefings because a special counsel’s report into classified documents found at the Democrat’s home found that Biden, 82, suffered from “poor memory.”
Trump was also prosecuted for mishandling classified documents but the Justice Department ended the case after the Republican won the 2024 election.