Former CIA director Michael Hayden hospitalized after suffering stroke

Associated Press

WASHINGTON - Former CIA Director Michael Hayden has been hospitalized after suffering a stroke earlier this week.

A statement released Friday by Hayden’s family says he is “receiving expert medical care.”

Hayden, who is 73 and a retired Air Force general, led the CIA under President George W. Bush from 2006 to early 2009. He was also director of the National Security Agency from 1999 to 2005.

He is currently a visiting professor at Virginia’s George Mason University, where he founded the Hayden Center for Intelligence, Policy and International Security.

He also works as a national security analyst at CNN, where he has been a frequent critic of President Donald Trump. He published a book this year called “The Assault on Intelligence: American National Security in an Age of Lies.”

Hayden was one of the former officials whose security clearance is under review by the Trump administration.

President Donald Trump also had officials review the clearances of former CIA director John Brennan, former FBI director James Comey, former national intelligence director James Clapper, former national security adviser Susan Rice and former deputy FBI director Andrew McCabe.

More: President Trump considers revoking security clearances for former U.S. officials

More: Donald Trump revokes former CIA director John Brennan's security clearance

Trump aims to revoke security clearance of six former officials Press secretary Sarah Sanders said in a White House press briefing that the president feels these former officials "politicized and in some cases monetized their public service."

"They politicize and in some cases actually monetize their public service and their security clearances in making baseless accusations of improper contact with Russia," Sanders said.

Brennan, who worked in senior roles in President George W. Bush's administration and was a CIA director under President Barack Obama, is the only one to lose his clearance thus far.

Hayden, a frequent critic of Trump, said in August after Brennan's clearance was revoked that he would be honored if the president revoked his clearance.

"Frankly, if his not revoking my clearance gave the impression that I somehow moved my commentary in a direction more acceptable to the White House, I would find that very disappointing and frankly unacceptable," he told CNN at the time.

Contributing: Christal Hayes