Republican Senator Rand Paul met with President Trump at the White House Monday and urged him to strip former CIA Director John Brennan of his security clearance. He also argued there is a risk in allowing former government officials to keep their security clearances once they've left their official positions.
"I don't think that ex-CIA agents of any stripe who are now talking heads should continue to get classified information. I think it's wrong," Paul explained during an interview with Fox News.
"John Brennan leaked information that almost cost the life of a double agent," he continued. "Now he’s a talking head on the outside, saying that basically President Trump should be executed. That’s what we do for treason. And so, yeah, I’m very concerned about him having privileges because of his past history."
At the daily briefing Monday afternoon, Press Secretary Sarah Sanders announced President Trump is looking at ways to strip clearances from a number of former senior government officials.
"Not only is the President looking to take away Brennan's security clearance, he's also looking into the clearances of Comey, Clapper, Hayden, Rice and McCabe," Sanders said. "The President is exploring the mechanisms to remove security clearance because they've politicized and in some case monetized their public service and security clearances making baseless accusations of improper contact with Russia or being influenced by Russia against the President is extremely inappropriate. The fact that people with security clearances are making these baseless charges provides inappropriate legitimacy to accusations with no legitimacy."
Many of the officials named by Sanders argue their security clearances have already been deactivated and that they no longer have access to sensitive or classified information.