Sen. Rand Paul is calling for immediate revocation of former CIA Director John Brennan's security clearance, for real this time.

"Disgraceful, extent to which the deep state will go to protect their own," the Kentucky Republican tweeted Friday, referring to the notion that federal or military officials are undermining a democratically elected government.

Disgraceful, extent to which the deep state will go to protect their own. I was in the Oval Office w/@realDonaldTrump when he directed officials to revoke John Brennan’s security clearance. A partisan hack & mouthpiece for the media has no business holding a clearance.Revoke now! — Senator Rand Paul (@RandPaul) June 7, 2019

"I was in the Oval Office w/@realDonaldTrump when he directed officials to revoke John Brennan’s security clearance. A partisan hack & mouthpiece for the media has no business holding a clearance," Paul added. "Revoke now!"

President Trump announced in August that Brennan's security clearance was being stripped due to "erratic behavior" that disqualified him from having access to sensitive information. But the White House never followed through with the complicated bureaucratic process of revocation, a source told the New York Times in a report published last month.

A close ally of the president, Paul told CNN this week he hopes Trump will conduct a search to find out who defied his order last year.

Brennan has been an outspoken critic of Trump and his tendency to question the motives of members of the U.S. intelligence community. He recently said he hopes Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats and CIA Director Gina Haspel will "stand up" to Trump's "unprecedented act" of granting Attorney General William Barr "full and complete authority to declassify information" related to the origins of the federal investigation into possible ties between the Trump campaign and Russia.