7. Intelligence Community · Major
Revoke security clearances of former officials who speak to the press
Printed page 213 7. Intelligence Community
“The President should immediately revoke the security clearances of any former Directors, Deputy Directors, or other senior intelligence officials who discuss their work in the press or on social media without prior clearance from the current Director.”
What has happened
- Partially done
A presidential memorandum directly rescinded the clearances and classified access of named former officials including Antony Blinken, Jacob Sullivan, Lisa Monaco, Fiona Hill and Alexander Vindman (plus Biden, Harris, Clinton, Cheney and others), on the ground that access was 'no longer in the national interest'. The ask is open-ended ('any former ... senior intelligence officials'); revocations of named individuals make it partial.
- Attempted
Executive Order 14152 directed the DNI, with the CIA Director, to revoke the clearances of the 51 former intelligence officials who signed the October 2020 Hunter Biden laptop letter and of John Bolton (for his memoir), and to report within 90 days on other IC involvement — a directive to revoke, not the revocations themselves.
- Executive Order 14152 — Holding Former Government Officials Accountable for Election Interference and Improper Disclosure of Sensitive Governmental Information
- Holding Former Government Officials Accountable for Election Interference and Improper Disclosure of Sensitive Governmental Information (Executive Order 14152)
Research log
What was searched, and what didn’t count as evidence
Research notes
- On 2025-08-19 DNI Gabbard announced, in a memo posted to X, the revocation of clearances of 37 current and former national-security officials for “politicization or weaponization of intelligence”. No readable allowlisted copy: dni.gov 403s automated fetches; Washington Post, The Hill and Axios pages (https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2025/08/19/gabbard-russia-revoke-security-clearance/, https://thehill.com/homenews/5460562-tulsi-gabbard-revokes-clearances/, https://www.axios.com/2025/08/20/gabbard-revokes-security-clearances-officials) are allowlisted but 403. Lead — a browser read would add a further partial event dated 2025-08-19.
- Whether the DNI actually executed the EO 14152 revocations of the 51 signatories is not on an allowlisted page; the March memorandum is the first Primary record of clearances actually rescinded.
- The 2025-02-25 memorandum “Suspension of Security Clearances and Evaluation of Government Contracts” (Covington & Burling) and the 2025-04-09 Krebs memorandum concern lawyers and a former CISA director, not former intelligence officials speaking to the press — not counted.
- Action
- withdraw
- Object
- Security clearances of former senior intelligence officials
- ID
- 561