Trump dares ex-CIA chief to sue him over revoked clearance

WASHINGTON — US President Donald Trump on Monday dared former CIA director John Brennan to take legal action to try to prevent him from stripping security clearances from other current and former officials.

“I hope John Brennan, the worst CIA Director in our country’s history, brings a lawsuit,” Trump tweets. “It will then be very easy to get all of his records, texts, emails and documents to show not only the poor job he did, but how he was involved with” the Russia probe led by special counsel Robert Mueller. “He won’t sue!”

The war of words between Trump and Brennan continued as scores of additional former US national security employees joined a wave of opposition to the president’s threat to continue pulling clearances. To date, more than 250 have publicly expressed opposition.

Speaking Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Brennan said he has been contacted by a number of lawyers about the possibility of an injunction in the wake of Trump’s move to revoke his clearance and his threat to nine others who have been critical of the president or are connected to Mueller’s investigation, which Trump has called witch hunt.

Trump yanked Brennan’s security clearance on Wednesday, saying he felt he had to do “something” about the “rigged” probe of Russian election interference. And he has said he may do the same for nine others, including a Justice Department official whose wife worked for the firm involved in producing a dossier on Trump’s ties to Russia.

Everybody wants to keep their Security Clearance, it’s worth great prestige and big dollars, even board seats, and that is why certain people are coming forward to protect Brennan. It certainly isn’t because of the good job he did! He is a political “hack.”

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 20, 2018

— AP