Tulsi Gabbard revokes security clearances of 37 US intelligence officers - Here's why

Donald Trump's National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, on Tuesday (August 19), said she directed the revocation of security clearances of 37 current and former intelligence professionals whom she accused of "politicising and manipulating intelligence."

Those impacted include people who were involved in conducting an assessment of Russia’s efforts to influence the 2016 election. They were also part of former President Joe Biden’s National Security Council.

In a post on X on August 19, Gabbard wrote, "Being entrusted with a security clearance is a privilege, not a right. Those in the Intelligence Community who betray their oath to the Constitution and put their own interests ahead of the interests of the American people have broken the sacred trust they promised to uphold."

The memo as circulated to multiple US intelligence communities but has no specific evidence in it about any wrongdoing by the officials, people familiar with the matter told CNN. The people cited in the memo held positions across a range of government agencies, and it’s unclear whether all still held an active clearance at the time of Gabbard’s announcement.

The move was the latest in Trump's efforts to discredit the intelligence community’s 2017 assessment that Russia sought to intervene in the 2016 presidential election in support of Trump.

Mark Zaid, a national security attorney whose own security clearance was previously revoked by Trump, told CNN, “These are unlawful and unconstitutional decisions that deviate from well-settled, decades old laws and policies that sought to protect against just this type of action."

“For this administration to claim these individuals politicized or weaponized intelligence blatantly wreaks of hypocrisy. This Administration would make Senator McCarthy proud," he added.