More than a dozen senior intelligence officials, including the retired navy admiral who oversaw the raid that killed Osama bin Laden, have heavily criticised Donald Trump, accusing him of trying to stifle free speech in revoking the security clearance of former spy chief John Brennan.

Writing in the Washington Post, William H McRaven, who presided over the Bin Laden raid, called Trump’s moves “McCarthy-era tactics” and said he would “consider it an honor” if Trump revoked his clearance as well.

“Like most Americans, I had hoped that when you became president, you would rise to the occasion and become the leader this great nation needs,” he wrote. “A good leader tries to embody the best qualities of his or her organization. A good leader sets the example for others to follow. A good leader always puts the welfare of others before himself or herself.

“Your leadership, however, has shown little of these qualities. Through your actions, you have embarrassed us in the eyes of our children, humiliated us on the world stage and, worst of all, divided us as a nation.”

McRaven also praised Brennan as “a man of unparalleled integrity, whose honesty and character have never been in question, except by those who don’t know him”.

“Director Brennan’s recent statements purport to know as fact that the Trump campaign colluded with a foreign power. If Director Brennan’s statement is based on intelligence he received while leading the CIA, why didn’t he include it in the Intelligence Community Assessment...... — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 17, 2018

It came after Brennan called Trump’s repeated denials that his campaign colluded with Russia during the 2016 election “hogwash” and accused the president of revoking his security clearance as part of a “desperate” attempt to interfere with the special counsel’s investigation.

The criticism was followed later on Thursday by a joint letter from 12 former senior intelligence officials calling Trump’s action “ill-considered and unprecedented”. They said it “has nothing to do with who should and should not hold security clearances – and everything to do with an attempt to stifle free speech”.

The signatories included six former CIA directors, five former deputy directors and former director of national intelligence James Clapper. Two of them – Clapper and former CIA director Michael Hayden – have appeared on a list of people whose security clearance the White House has publicly threatened to remove.

And late on Thursday night, a 13th name signed on – that of Robert Gates, who served as defense secretary under former presidents George W Bush and Barack Obama and had previously been George HW Bush’s director of the CIA, Slate and CNN reported.

Trump on Wednesday openly tied his decision to strip Brennan of his clearance – and threaten nearly a dozen other former and current officials – to the investigation into Russian election meddling and possible collusion with his campaign. In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Trump again called the investigation a “rigged witch-hunt” and said: “These people led it!”

“So I think it’s something that had to be done,” he said.

The president’s comments were a swift departure from the official explanation given by the White House earlier on Wednesday that cited the “the risks” posed by Brennan’s alleged “erratic conduct and behavior”.

Michael Morrell, former deputy director of the CIA, wrote on Twitter: “Bill McRaven is among the least partisan, the least political, the most patriotic people I know. His taking a stand on this issue is very significant.”

Harvard law professor Laurence Tribe mocked Trump. “I’m on board with Admiral McRaven. If I had a security clearance Trump could revoke, I’d ask him to revoke it,” he tweeted.

Trump supporters on social media made comments ranging from “anyone who endorses Brennan is a dirty dog” to “please Donald Trump revoke McRaven’s security clearance – he’s literally asking for it”.

Attorneys said the revocation appeared to be within the president’s authority.

Renato Mariotti, a former federal prosecutor, agreed. “The president is fixated on the Russia investigation, he’s angry about it, and he wants to do everything he can to discourage or slow down the investigation,” he said.

Special counsel Robert Mueller and his team have been looking at Trump’s public statements and tweets as they investigate whether the president could be guilty of obstruction.

Former CIA directors and other top national security officials are typically allowed to keep their clearances, at least for some period.

The initial White House statement about Brennan’s clearance made no reference to the Russia investigation. Instead, the president said he was fulfilling his “constitutional responsibility to protect the nation’s classified information”, even though he made no suggestion that Brennan was improperly exposing the nation’s secrets.

“Mr Brennan’s lying and recent conduct characterized by increasingly frenzied commentary is wholly inconsistent with access to the nations’ most closely held secrets,” Trump said.

A few hours later his explanation had changed. “You look at any of them and you see the things they’ve done,” Trump told the Journal. “In some cases they’ve lied before Congress. The Hillary Clinton whole investigation was a total sham.”

“I don’t trust many of those people on that list,” he said. “I think that they’re very duplicitous. I think they’re not good people.”



