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Revoking Clearance, Trump Aims Presidential Power at Russia Inquiry

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The move to revoke John Brennan’s security clearance may be the latest sign that the president is determined to punish anyone connected to the Russia investigation.
WASHINGTON — For more than a year, law enforcement officials have repeatedly rebuffed President Trump’s efforts to use the power of his office to derail the Russia investigation. Stymied, Mr. Trump is lashing out in other ways against an investigation that he clearly hates or fears.
The president said Thursday that he revoked the security clearance of John O. Brennan, a former C. I. A. director, because Mr. Brennan had been part of what Mr. Trump has called the “sham” Russia investigation. That move, and the threats of more revocations, were the latest signs that the president seems determined to punish anyone connected to the Russia inquiry.
Law enforcement officials, lawmakers and members of the intelligence community expressed worry that the president’s act of retaliation will have a potentially chilling effect on the United States’ law enforcement and intelligence officers.
Anxiety about Mr. Trump’s next move could give investigators pause as they pursue cases, and it might hamper recruitment of a new generation of agents, they said. The president’s decision to follow through on his threats to revoke Mr. Brennan’s security clearance, they said, sent a shudder through the spies and intelligence officials he used to lead.
“This is the politicization of security clearances,” said David Priess, a former C. I. A. officer who has written a book on presidential intelligence briefings. “It makes national security agencies vulnerable to the selective granting and removal of security clearances, which is something that happens more in a banana republic than the United States of America.”
Aitan Goelman, the lawyer for the former F. B. I. agent Peter Strzok, who was fired for writing anti-Trump texts, accused the president of abusing his constitutional authority to silence his critics.
“By revoking Director Brennan’s clearance and threatening the security clearance of Pete and seven other former officials on Trump’s ‘enemies list,’ the president has taken us down one more step on the path toward authoritarianism,” Mr. Goelman said.
Senator James Lankford, Republican of Oklahoma and a member of the Intelligence Committee, defended the president’s decision to cut off Mr. Brennan’s access to classified information, and he played down the effect on the broader intelligence community.
“He’s mad at Brennan clearly — this guy called him treasonous and everything else,” Mr. Lankford said. “And so he is responding in a way he can respond, but he’s not trying to silence him. If anything, he’s given him a bigger microphone.”
Indeed, Mr. Brennan, who led the C. I. A. under President Barack Obama and has been one of the most vocal intelligence community critics of Mr. Trump, drew attention on Thursday by striking back. He dismissed as “hogwash” the president’s claims of “no collusion” with Russia to influence the 2016 election and argued that Mr. Trump was trying to silence challengers.
“Mr. Trump clearly has become more desperate to protect himself and those close to him, which is why he made the politically motivated decision to revoke my security clearance in an attempt to scare into silence others who might dare to challenge him,” Mr. Brennan wrote in an opinion article in The New York Times. He said the move made it more important than ever for the special counsel in the Russia inquiry, Robert S. Mueller III, to complete his investigation.
But others predicted that political appointees who have security clearances will be nervous about saying or doing anything that might make Mr. Trump angry, especially about the Russia investigation. And it is likely to worry the consulting firms, defense contractors and other private businesses that have employees with security clearances, they said.
“The message he’s sending is: Don’t cross me,” said Mary McCord, who helped run the Justice Department’s national security division until she left last year. “Career national security professionals are good at blocking out the noise of what’s in the news, but it’s harder to ignore when it’s the president attacking you.”
The president’s move to strip former top officials of their ability to access classified information was the latest example of Mr. Trump successfully using the power of his office to exert influence over the political and legal maelstrom swirling around his administration.
He pressured the F. B. I. to fire Andrew G. McCabe, the bureau’s deputy director, and several members of the Mueller team. Mr. Trump helped his allies in Congress to strong-arm the Justice Department to hand over internal documents related to the Russia inquiry. And the president’s repeated attacks on Mr. Mueller’s investigators are meant to undermine the credibility of the investigation in the eyes of the public, lawmakers and even potential jurors.
None of his moves have brought down Mr. Mueller’s investigation, in part because Mr. Trump has mostly resisted the temptation to order officials at the Justice Department to act on his Twitter-fueled musings. And when he has not, including at least two attempts to fire the special counsel, White House aides blocked Mr. Trump’s way.
Two weeks ago, Mr. Trump tweeted that “Attorney General Jeff Sessions should stop this Rigged Witch Hunt right now, before it continues to stain our country any further. Bob Mueller is totally conflicted, and his 17 Angry Democrats that are doing his dirty work are a disgrace to USA!”
Mr. Sessions ignored the president’s demand.
Representative Elijah E. Cummings of Maryland, the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, accused the president on Thursday of failing to follow the procedures for revoking security clearances that are set out in longstanding executive orders.
“It appears that President Trump has invented an entirely new standard for revoking security clearances that has no precedent,” Mr. Cummings wrote in a letter to the White House.
William H. McRaven, a retired Navy admiral who led the Joint Special Operations Command under Mr. Obama, wrote an open letter to Mr. Trump on Thursday saying that he would consider it “an honor” to have the president revoke his security clearance, as well.
“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,” Mr. McRaven wrote in the letter, published by The Washington Post . “If you think for a moment that your McCarthy-era tactics will suppress the voices of criticism, you are sadly mistaken. The criticism will continue until you become the leader we prayed you would be.”
Before Mr. Trump’s move against Mr. Brennan, security clearance revocations were initiated by the agencies and were done for causes such as mishandling classified material, or for personal problems that could be used against an official, such as financial troubles or alcoholism.
But Mr. Trump’s initial justification, presented Wednesday in a letter released by the White House press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, centered on Mr. Brennan’s “erratic behavior,” a reference, it seems, to his at times angry denunciations of Mr.

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