In a March 22 Presidential Action marked ‘Memorandum for the heads of Executive Departments and Agencies’, President Donald Trump announced he has rescinded the security clearances of multiple former politicians including Joe Biden, Kamala Harris and Hillary Clinton. In his presidential memo Trump asserted that it was “no longer in the national interest” for the individuals affected to access classified information.
Trump had previously announced the revocation of Biden’s security clearance in a February 7 social media post, stating that Biden “set this precedent in 2021” by revoking Trump’s access to intelligence briefings, “a courtesy provided to former Presidents.” The Daily Caller News Foundation reports that Biden revoked Trump’s access to intelligence briefings in February 2021, citing Trump’s “erratic behavior unrelated to the insurrection” in a CBS News interview.
Neither Biden nor “any other member of [his] family” were to retain their security clearances, according to the recent presidential memo. Last week Trump posted to Truth Social that Biden’s son Hunter’s security detail comprised up to 18 people and that Hunter was “currently vacationing in, of all places, South Africa, where the Human Rights of people has been strenuously questioned.” He added that Biden’s daughter Ashley would also be stripped of her 13-member security detail.
In addition to previously mentioned Democrat opponents, former Secretary of State Antony Blinken, former Republican legislators Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger, former Trump European and Russian affairs assistant Fiona Hill, former National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, and former Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco, are among individuals affected by the presidential action.
Additionally, New York State Attorney General Letitia James, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, attorneys Mark Zaid, Norman Eisen, and Andrew Weissmann; and Alexander Vindman — an army veteran and former director in the first Trump administration’s National Security Council — were also affected.