Trump, according to the Washington Post, also revoked security clearances for around 50 former intelligence officials — including former National Security Adviser John Bolton and four ex-CIA directors. One of the former CIA directors was Leon Panetta, who also served as secretary of defense in the Obama Administration. Another was John O. Brennan. Trump also revoked the security clearance for James Clapper, who served as director of national intelligence under Barack Obama but held positions in the George W. Bush Administration before that. Journalist Ken Klippenstein listed all 50 of them in a January 20 post on X, formerly Twitter.
Trump issued an executive order Monday revoking the security clearances of at least 51 former intelligence officials who helped coordinate an effort to discredit reporting that former President Joe Biden’s son Hunter had left his laptop at a computer repair business.
Trump plans to revoke the security clearances of the so-called “Spies Who Lie” on his first day back in office, targeting at least 51 former intelligence officials who worked to discredit the Hunter Biden laptop story, which was later confirmed as authentic by federal authorities. The laptop, left at a Delaware repair shop, contained emails linking Hunter Biden to a Ukrainian executive, and was used in The Post's reporting on foreign influence and drug use allegations. Despite the FBI's verification in 2019 and its use in Hunter Biden's gun trial, the former officials who signed a 2020 letter questioning the laptop's legitimacy maintain their position, with one lawyer defending it as a warning about foreign interference: "certain foreign governments — including Russia — continue to try and actively interfere in our domestic affairs."
