Donald Trump said he had ordered that the security clearances of Antony Blinken, the now former secretary of state, be revoked just days after doing the same to Joe Biden late on Friday.
In an interview with the New York Post published over the weekend, the US president confirmed he would withdraw Blinken’s security clearance, calling him a “bad guy”.
“Take away his passes,” Trump added.
The president said he also planned to revoke security clearances for Letitia James, the New York attorney general, and Alvin L Bragg, the Manhattan district attorney, both of whom prosecuted him last year.
He also intends to strip clearances from the former national security adviser Jake Sullivan, former deputy attorney general Lisa Monaco, and lawyers Andrew Weissmann, Mark Zaid and Norm Eisen, who are linked to investigations involving his first administration.
“There are people that we don’t respect. If there are people that we thought that were breaking the law, that came very close to it in previous years, we do it. And we’ve done it with some people,” Trump told reporters, according to the Hill.
On Friday Trump revoked the security clearance of Biden, ending his access to daily intelligence briefings and saying there was “no need” for Biden to “continue receiving access to classified information”. He claimed Biden “set this precedent in 2021” by revoking Trump’s own clearance in response to his role in the January 6 attack on the Capitol where Trump supporters attempted to overthrow the winner of the election.
James mocked Trump’s move in a statement to the New York Times. “What security clearance?” it said, describing his actions as “just another attempt to distract from the real work the attorney general is doing to defend the rights of New Yorkers and all Americans”.
Zaid, a lawyer who represented the whistleblower in the investigation that led to Trump’s first impeachment over his dealings with Ukraine, said he was “honored by President Trump bestowing upon me a Red Badge of Courage, but if he and his partisan minions think this will deter me from holding them accountable to the rule of law, they are sadly mistaken”.
By law, he said, he was “entitled to lawful due process, to include being informed why after 25 years of access to classified information I am suddenly untrustworthy, and I fully expect to be afforded the opportunity”.
Eisen wrote that he viewed his “inclusion on Trump’s list as a backhanded compliment in response to our court successes against his administration this week”.
“I intend to return it in the best way I know how: by filing many more lawsuits against his and his cronies’ wrongdoing.”
Last month, the US defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, revoked the security detail and clearance for Mark Milley, a retired decorated army general and former chair of the joint chiefs of staff, who went on to criticize Trump after serving under his first administration.
Trump also revoked the security detail for three of his former administration officials, including the former secretary of state Mike Pompeo; Brian Hook, a former top aide; and John Bolton, his former national security adviser; as well as Anthony Fauci, former longtime director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
