Exclusive | Trump stripping the security clearances of numerous antagonists — including NY AG Letitia James, DA Alvin Bragg
President Trump has ordered security clearances stripped from a new hit list of antagonists.
Just days after revoking Joe Biden’s access to classified information and secure federal buildings — “because I don’t trust him” — Trump said his new top target is ex-Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, who orchestrated the “Dirty 51” letter from former intelligence officials on the eve of the 2020 election.
The infamous missive falsely claimed that Hunter Biden’s laptop, the contents of which The Post revealed, was Russian disinformation.
Blinken’s security clearances will be revoked, following the same presidential directive aimed at Biden and the 51 ex-spooks last week, Trump told The Post in an exclusive interview.
“Bad guy. Take away his passes,” he said of Blinken.
“This is to take away every right they have [revoking security clearances] including they can’t go into [federal] buildings.”
New York Attorney General Letitia James and Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg join the new group of eight Democrat foes Trump plans to punish by revoking any access to classified information and barring their entry to federal facilities.
The president said they all will be given “exactly the same” punishment as Biden and the Dirty 51 as part of his administration’s vow to hold government officials accountable for actions he regards as election interference or the mishandling of classified information.
Bragg prosecuted Trump last year in the so-called “hush money” case and James brought a civil fraud case against the president for supposedly exaggerating his wealth when applying for bank loans.
The move is regarded as more symbolic than consequential for the New York lawfare duo.
But it could hamper them in carrying out their official duties by prohibiting them from entering courthouses, prisons, and law enforcement facilities in Foley Square in lower Manhattan, including the Thurgood Marshall and Daniel Patrick Moynihan courthouses, the Metropolitan Correctional Center, and the Jacob Javits Federal Building which houses the FBI’s New York field office.
They also will not be able to set foot in the US Attorney’s offices for the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York, in Manhattan and Brooklyn.
“It’s more an insult and a slap in the face than a real deterrent,” said attorney Bob Costello, a former Manhattan federal prosecutor who testified as a defense witness in Trump’s hush-money trial in Manhattan.
The other targets Trump disclosed to The Post include Biden’s former National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, who also was chief foreign policy adviser to Hillary Clinton during her failed 2016 presidential bid when he notoriously helped foment the Trump-Russia collusion hoax.
Also in Trump’s sights are Biden’s Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco, who was involved in overseeing lawfare investigations against Trump and coordinating the DOJ response to the Jan. 6 riot.
She also helped orchestrate the Russia hoax while working as an aide to President Obama.
Next in line are anti-Trumpers Andrew Weissman, the lead prosecutor in Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s Russiagate investigation of Trump, who frequently maligns the former president in his role as an MNBC contributor; lawyer Mark Zaid, who represented Eric Ciaramella, the CIA analyst identified as the whistleblower in Trump’s impeachment in 2019 over a phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky; and Norm Eisen, special counsel to the Democrat-led House Judiciary Committee during the impeachment.
Former Trump attorney Tim Parlatore says Trump’s action is largely symbolic and hard to enforce, especially on New York officials.
But it will have a “major impact” on Zaid’s legal practice “because he fashions himself as a national security lawyer.”
“He’s a whacky partisan guy [who] tweeted after Trump was inaugurated that it was time for a coup. He makes his money during Republican [presidencies] by going against the administration.”
Trump last week cut off Biden’s access to the daily intelligence briefings normally afforded former presidents, before stripping his security clearances, telling The Post he doesn’t “trust” his predecessor with such sensitive information.
“I don’t trust him. He’s not worthy of trust … To safeguard national security,”
He told the Post his administration had no plans to investigate his predecessor, while noting that Biden did not pardon himself when he pardoned his son Hunter and six other family members.
“I wouldn’t do it specifically. If something comes up, he’s certainly prime time for investigation. … It’s not good what he did to our country. I mean, all of this work we’re doing now with getting [illegal aliens] out, finding murderers on the street. … all of this that we’re doing is because of him allowing people to come into our country.”
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