President Trump said he has revoked the security clearances of more than a dozen political adversaries, including former President Biden, former Vice President Harris and several former Biden administration officials.
In a presidential memorandum released Saturday, Trump said it was "no longer in the national interest" for the named individuals to have access to classified information — a move critics view as retaliation for Biden's decision to strip Trump of his clearance in 2021 due to concerns over what Biden described as Trump's "erratic behavior."
The list of those affected goes beyond Biden and his administration, targeting figures involved in Trump's first impeachment trial, including Fiona Hill, Norm Eisen and Alexander Vindman. Former Secretaries of State Antony Blinken and Hillary Clinton are also named.
It also includes legal figures like New York Attorney General Letitia James and Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, both of whom have pursued high-profile legal cases against Trump. Two Republican critics of Trump, Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger — who both served on the House Select Committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol — were also included in the memo.
Several former officials shrug off move as meaningless
The practical effects of the move are likely minimal. Security clearances for former officials are generally revoked after they leave office unless they continue to engage in national security matters. Many of those on the list have not had active clearances for years.
In a post on X, Eisen, a former special counsel to the House Judiciary Committee which oversaw Trump's 2019 impeachment inquiry, wrote: "It's like the third time he's announced he's revoking my security clearance I mean, does he revoke it [and] then give it back to me so he can revoke it again? Who does he think I am, a big law firm or a billionaire who's gonna back down? It just makes me file even more lawsuits!"
Vindman, a former National Security Council official who testified in Trump's impeachment hearings, also dismissed the gesture as meaningless: "I'm not a weak-kneed billionaire or a massive spineless law firm, so I don't care what noises @realDonaldTrump makes about a security clearance that hasn't been active for five years."
Mark Zaid, a lawyer whose clearance was also revoked, voiced similar skepticism, writing, "This is like the third time already I've lost my security clearance? How many times does it take? Is this like a [Beetlejuice] thing where something magical will now happen?"
Copyright 2025 NPR
