Former U.S. intelligence officials James Clapper and John Brennan have criticized Donald Trump for relentlessly and petulantly insisting that the hackers who stole and leaked Democratic Party emails during the 2016 campaign may not have been Russian. On Monday, Republican Sen. Rand Paul (who’s a frequent critic of the U.S. intelligence apparatus in general) scored some points with Trump by suggesting that Brennan’s continuing security clearance should be revoked because he is “monetizing” it by, I guess, appearing on cable news to criticize the president, as if no one would care what the former director of national intelligence said about the signature intelligence story of the decade if he didn’t have the relatively mundane bureaucratic status that the clearance delineates. White House press secretary Sarah Sanders took this idea and ran with it, asserting that Trump is also thinking about revoking the clearances of essentially everyone else who has ever disagreed with him in a CNN appearance. “Comey” is former FBI director James Comey, “Hayden” is former National Security Agency director Michael Hayden, “Rice” is former national security adviser Susan Rice, and “McCabe” is infamous ex-FBI official Andrew McCabe:

MS. SANDERS: Not only is the President looking to take away Brennan’s security clearance, he’s also looking into the clearances of [James] Comey, Clapper, Hayden, Rice, and [Andrew] McCabe. The President is exploring the mechanisms to remove security clearance because they’ve politicized and, in some cases, monetized their public service and security clearances.

National security expert/pundit Benjamin Wittes, a longtime friend of Comey’s, checked in with the former FBI director on the subject, and ….

I just texted @Comey asking whether he even has a security clearance to revoke.



“Nope,” he responded. There’s nothing for POTUS to revoke. Comey says he was “read out” when he left government as per normal practice. 1/2 — Benjamin Wittes (@benjaminwittes) July 23, 2018

The New York Times confirms that neither Comey nor McCabe have a clearance. Top-notch White House research on an intelligence subject, here. Maybe they should have their clearances revoked?