Trump Suspends Security Clearance of 51 Officials Who Protected Hunter’s Laptop.
President Donald Trump signed so many executive orders that I forgot to write about this one.
Trump revoked the security clearances of the 51 intel officials who claimed Hunter Biden’s laptop “has all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation.”
These people did everything they could to ensure former President Joe Biden defeated Trump in 2020.
Once Biden won, though, no one could contain the truth: The laptop belonged to Hunter, and everything on it belonged to him.
Well, all 51 of the officials refused to apologize for their letter. The officials helped themselves by crafting the letter to make it easy to shed any responsibility.
They said they had suspicions about it coming from Russia, but they never provided confirmation.
They no longer have security clearances. The list includes James Clapper, Leon Panetta, Jeremy Bash (ex-husband of CNN’s Dana Bash), John Bolton, and John Brennan.
Section 1. Purpose. In the closing weeks of the 2020 Presidential campaign, at least 51 former intelligence officials coordinated with the Biden campaign to issue a letter discrediting the reporting that President Joseph R. Biden’s son had abandoned his laptop at a computer repair business. Signatories of the letter falsely suggested that the news story was part of a Russian disinformation campaign.
Before being issued, the letter was sent to the CIA Prepublication Classification Review Board, the body typically assigned to formally evaluate the sensitive nature of documents prior to publication. Senior CIA officials were made aware of the contents of the letter, and multiple signatories held clearances at the time and maintained ongoing contractual relationships with the CIA.
Federal policymakers must be able to rely on analysis conducted by the Intelligence Community and be confident that it is accurate, crafted with professionalism, and free from politically motivated engineering to affect political outcomes in the United States. The signatories willfully weaponized the gravitas of the Intelligence Community to manipulate the political process and undermine our democratic institutions.
This fabrication of the imprimatur of the Intelligence Community to suppress information essential to the American people during a Presidential election is an egregious breach of trust reminiscent of a third world country. And now the faith of Americans in all other patriotic intelligence professionals who are sworn to protect the Nation has been imperiled.
National security is also damaged by the publication of classified information. Former National Security Advisor John R. Bolton published a memoir for monetary gain after he was terminated from his White House position in 2019. The book was rife with sensitive information drawn from his time in government. The memoir’s reckless treatment of sensitive information undermined the ability of future presidents to request and obtain candid advice on matters of national security from their staff. Publication also created a grave risk that classified material was publicly exposed.
To remedy these abuses of the public trust, this Order directs the revocation of any active or current security clearances held by: (i) the former intelligence officials who engaged in misleading and inappropriate political coordination with the 2020 Biden presidential campaign; and (ii) John R. Bolton.