Trump signed off on a memo on March 21, to revoke the former presidents security clearances of over a dozen people for the sake of ‘national interest’.
Included in the list of those removed were Biden and his entire family, former Vice President Kamala Harris, Hillary Clinton and multiple attorneys and anti-Trump politicians.
It’s a courtesy for former senior government officials to be invited to classified intelligence briefings.
However, in his memo, Trump wrote: “I have determined that it is no longer in the national interest for the following individuals to access classified information.”
Taking to his own social media platform, Truth Social, that Biden ‘set this precedent’ when ‘he instructed the Intelligence Community (IC) to stop the 45th President of the United States (ME!) from accessing details on National Security, a courtesy provided to former Presidents’.
At the time, Biden had said Trump’s ‘erratic behavior’ was behind his decision to remove him, adding: “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?”
He also claimed Biden ‘could not be trusted with sensitive information’ adding that the 82-year-old had ‘poor memory’.
The memo also bans former Biden officials Antony Blinken, Jake Sullivan and Lisa Monaco, legal personnel, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and New York Attorney General Letitia James, and some anti-Trump Republicans, Adam Kinzinger and Liz Cheney, have been barred.
Also on the are some who served as witnessed in Trump’s impeachment, including Alexander Vindman, Fiona Hill and Mark Zaid, as well as lead prosecutor in Robert Mueller’s Trump investigation, Andrew Weissmann and Norman Eisen.
POTUS wrote: “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.”
He added that those listed on the memo would no longer attend ‘classified briefings, such as the President’s Daily Brief, and access to classified information held by any member of the Intelligence Community’.
“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,” he added.
