President Donald Trump has tweeted statements made by one of his biggest supporters, Fox News’ Sean Hannity, who wants him to revoke the security clearance of officials who served in the Obama administration.
The tweet read: ‘”I’d strip the whole bunch of them. They’re all corrupt. They’ve all abused their power. They’ve all betrayed the American people with a political agenda. They tried to steal and influence an election in the United States,” @seanhannity.’
Earlier on Wednesday, the White House announced that Trump had revoked the security clearance of former CIA Director John Brennan.
Trump also tweeted a comment from supporter Joseph DiGenova, a former U.S. federal prosecutor who has gone on Fox News and accused the FBI of ‘framing’ the president.
President Trump tweeted a quote from Sean Hannity (seen above on the air Wednesday) of Fox News who urged the president to revoke clearances from other Obama-era officials

Earlier on Wednesday, the White House announced that Trump revoked the security clearance of former CIA Director John Brennan

DiGenova, a former U.S. federal prosecutor, has pushed conspiracy theories accusing the Justice Department of wrongly exonerating Hillary Clinton while using the Russia investigation as a ‘plot’ to hurt Trump.
Trump, who often tweets quotes from supporters word-for-word after they appear on Fox News, posted a quote from diGenova.
‘Hillary Clinton clearly got a pass by the FBI. We have the unfortunate situation where they then decided they were going to frame Donald Trump” concerning the Rigged Witch Hunt. JOE DIGENOVA, former U.S. Attorney,’ he wrote.
This is not the first time that diGenova has floated the conspiracy theory about the Justice Department’s alleged cover-up of Clinton’s crimes.
There was a brazen plot to illegally exonerate Hillary Clinton and, if she didn’t win the election, to then frame Donald Trump with a falsely created crime,’ diGenova told Fox News earlier this year.
‘Make no mistake about it: A group of F.B.I. and D.O.J. people were trying to frame Donald Trump of a falsely created crime,’ he said.
In March, diGenova and his wife, Victoria Toensing, who is also an attorney, were reportedly on the verge of joining Trump’s legal team, but the appointment fell through.
Clinton was cleared after a lengthy investigation by the FBI into her use of a private email server during her tenure as secretary of state under the Obama administration.
Trump’s campaign is being scrutinized as part of a federal investigation into whether the Russian government meddled in the 2016 elections.
Trump, his campaign, and the Russian government deny the allegations.

Trump also tweeted a statement made by a supporter of his who has gone on Fox News and accused the FBI of ‘framing’ the president

Joseph DiGenova, a former U.S. federal prosecutor, has pushed conspiracy theories accusing the Justice Department of using the Russia investigation as a ‘plot’ to hurt Trump. He is seen right with his wife, Victoria Toensing, on Fox Business Network on Wednesday
The president has had a long-running feud with former top intelligence and law enforcement officials who believe Russia interfered in the election with the aim of helping Trump win office.
Earlier on Wednesday, former CIA Director John Brennan hit back at Trump by comparing him to ‘despots and autocrats’ after the president’s stunning decision to yank the security clearance of the former spy chief who has become a fierce public critic.
The White House announced the decision Wednesday afternoon in an extraordinary slap at Brennan that other former spymasters called an effort to intimidate them all from exercising their First Amendment right to render criticism against the president.
Brennan vowed not to relent.
‘I’ve seen this type of behavior and actions on the part of foreign tyrants and despots and autocrats for many, many years during my CIA and national security career,’ Brennan told MSNBC.
‘I never, ever thought that I would see it here in the United States.’
Calling in to the network hours after the decision was revealed to the nation at a televised briefing at the White House, Brennan said, ‘If Mr. Trump believes that this is going to lead me to just go away and be quiet, he is very badly mistaken.’
He called the move Trump’s ‘way of getting back at me and a bid ‘to intimidate and suppress any criticism of him or his administration.’

Brennan (above) has been a harsh critic of President Trump and has called him a virtual puppet of Russian President Vladimir Putin
Brennan also blasted the decision on Twitter, flexing his independence after the White House accused him of making ‘wild outbursts on the internet and television’ about the current administration.
‘This action is part of a broader effort by Mr. Trump to suppress freedom of speech & punish critics. It should gravely worry all Americans, including intelligence professionals, about the cost of speaking out. My principles are worth far more than clearances. I will not relent,’ he wrote.
White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders announced the stunning move from the White House briefing room podium as the building was engulfed in controversy over the new tell-all book penned by former aide Omarosa Manigault-Newman.
Sanders had been unable to guarantee a day earlier from the same podium that a tape would never emerge of Trump saying the N-word on the set of ‘The Apprentice’ or in some other context. Manigault-Newman has claimed to have heard such a recording.
Trump did not personally weigh in on the news until six hours later.
Even then, he just quoted former Secret Service agent and failed Republican politician Dan Bongino on Twitter.
‘John Brennan is a stain on the Country, we deserve better than this,’ Bongino said.
Trump told him, ‘Thank you Dan, and good luck with the book!’
Sanders was the face of the clearance dispute on Wednesday after making the announcement about Brennan at a briefing where she withstood repeated questioning about why each of the officials targeted for review has been a prominent Trump critic or otherwise features in Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia probe.
Fired Trump National Security Advisor and retired Gen. Mike Flynn, who has pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI, was notably left off the list of former officials who were considered a threat.
The chief Trump spokeswoman said clearances that were issued to nine current and former officials, including fired former FBI director James Comey, fired FBI agent Peter Strzok, current Justice Department official Bruce Ohr, ex-CIA Director Michael Hayden and former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, are ‘under review’ by the president.
All are prominent Trump opponents, playing a role in the Russia probe Trump has termed a ‘witch hunt.’
If the act was meant to silence Trump’s critics, it did not have the intended effect. Clapper and Hayden immediately called into CNN. Brennan dialed into MSNBC.
The former CIA director kept up his criticism of Trump’s character and spoke cryptically on the network about what he knows about Russian actions as he absorbed the decision he learned about only Wednesday.
‘I must tell you that Mr. Trump’s dishonesty, his lack of integrity, his nastiness, that mean spiritedness, the types of things that he has just tweeted out in the past 72 hours, the terms that he uses, this is not what I think of an American president, nor of America,’ Brennan said.
‘I know some things that the Russians were involved in, but I certainly don’t know all the things that Mr. Trump has been involved in over the years, and I do not pretend to have that knowledge,’ he continued. ‘He is the one, but clearly his actions are those of somebody who is seeking to prevent the full light of day being shown upon his past,’ Brennan said, clearly linking the decision on his clearance to Mueller’s probe.
‘He may very well have a – a guilty conscience about the types of things that he has done in the past,’ Brennan speculated. ‘I don’t know. He is the one who has to account for those previous actions and whether or not those actions ran afoul of – of ethics and of the law. And I don’t know what he may be concerned about in terms of what might be divulged as part of this investigation or others. But as I have said repeatedly, I find his attitude and behavior toward Vladimir Putin and the Russians very, very puzzling and very, very irrational.’
Among the offenses the Trump statement cited were that Brennan ‘leveraged his status’ and made ‘unfounded and outrageous allegations.’ Sanders, reading Trump’s statement, cited ‘wild outbursts on the Internet and television’ and ‘increasingly frenzied commentary’ – turning the tables on a critic just a day after the president called took flak for calling Omarosa a ‘dog’ on Twitter.

Brennan blasted the decision on Twitter and said it should ‘gravely worry all Americans’

IMBECILIC: Brennan tweeted last month that Trump’s conduct with the Russian president was ‘treasonous’ and said he was ‘in the pocket of Putin’

Brennan blasted Trump’s ‘venality’ in a March tweet after the president gloated over the firing of senior FBI official Andrew McCabe
Wednesday’s conversation-changing move came less than 24 hours after Sanders was forced to issue an unpredecented apology for an erroneous claim she made from the podium. She slammed African-American unemployment figures from the Obama era that were off by nearly 3 million.
She tweeted a mea culpa that prevented reporters from asking for a deeper explanation of who was to blame after the Council of Economic Advisers, also through Twitter, took the heat for incorrectly briefing her.
Sanders fielded just a single Omarosa-related question the following day as reporters in the room processed the unexpected and breaking news about Brennan.
Trump’s statement on the former CIA chief initially carried a date of July 26 when the White House first distributed it to the press. The error either represented yet another case of poor proofreading by the White House or indicated the White House rushed out the statement at the last minute amid the Omarosa tell-all chaos.
Brennan, among other things, has said on TV and online that Trump is being manipulated by Russian President Vladimir Putin. He was among a handful of officials who were present and briefed in the earliest stages of the government’s Russia probe of Trump officials during the 2016 campaign.
‘Any benefits that senior officials might glean from consultations with Mr. Brennan are now outweighed by the risk posed by his erratic conduct and behavior,’ Sanders said.
The White House crackdown on his clearance came after Brennan admonished Trump on Twitter for calling Omarosa a ‘dog.’
‘It’s astounding how often you fail to live up to minimum standards of decency, civility, & probity,’ Brennan commented on Trump’s tweet. ‘Seems like you will never understand what it means to be president, nor what it takes to be a good, decent, & honest person. So disheartening, so dangerous for our Nation,’ he wrote.
Brennan also hit back at Trump after he tweeted that it may be ‘not presidential’ to call Omarosa a ‘lowlife’ but did so anyway.
‘You’re absolutely right. If you were ‘presidential,’ you would focus on healing the rifts within our Nation, being truthful about the challenges we face, & showing the world that America is still that shining beacon of freedom, liberty, prosperity, & goodness that welcomes all,’ Brennan wrote.
Sanders laid out the case for his clearance to be revoked in a lengthy statement just as reporters were girding to press her on Manigault-Newman’s secret tapings of Trump and his aides.
Several other former officials who have criticized Trump and one DOJ official the president wants to fire also have their clearances under review.
Pressed on why only Trump opponents, and only Trump opponents, found themselves in the cross-hairs, she said that if issues arise for others, the White House would ‘take a look and review those as well.’
‘Mr. Brennan has a history that calls into question his objectivity and credibility. In 2014, for example, he denied to Congress that CIA officials under his supervision had improperly accessed the computer files of congressional staffers. He told the Council on Foreign Relations that the CIA would never do such a thing. The CIA’s inspector general, however, contradicted Mr. Brennan directly, concluding unequivocally that officials had indeed improperly accessed the computer files of congressional staffers.
‘More recently Mr. Brennan told Congress that the intelligence community did not make use of the so-called ‘Steele Dossier’ in an assessment regarding the 2016 election, an assertion contradicted by at least two other senior officials in the intelligence community and all of the facts,’ she said.
Mr. Brennan has recently leveraged his status as a former high-ranking official with access to highly sensitive information to make a series of unfounded and outrageous allegations – wild outbursts on the Internet and television’ – about the administration
‘Additionally, Mr. Brennan has recently leveraged his status as a former high-ranking official with access to highly sensitive information to make a series of unfounded and outrageous allegations – wild outbursts on the Internet and television’ – about the administration,’ she continued.
‘Mr. Brennan’s lying and recent conduct, characterized by increasingly frenzied commentary, is totally inconsistent with access to the nation’s most closely held secrets and facilities the very aim of our adversaries, which is to sow division and chaos,’ she said.
Sanders added, reading from the Trump statement: ‘I have also begun to review the more general question of the access to classified information by government officials. As part of this review, I am evaluating action with respect to the following individuals: James Clapper, James Comey, Michael Hayden, Sally Yates, Susan Rice, Andrew McCabe, Peter Strzok, Lisa Page and Bruce Ohr. Security clearances for those who still have them may be revoked, and those who have already lost their security clearance may not be able to have it reinstated.’
Brennan also shot back during a call-in to MSNBC, where he is a paid commentator.
‘I’m very concerned about what his might portend,’ Brennan said. ‘I am concerned that if security clearances are now going to become a political tool’ it will ‘send a very, very chilling message,’ he added.
Brennan said he was ‘still absorbing’ the move, which the former head of the CIA learned from Sanders’ briefing, not through official channels.
He said he wasn’t sure whether he would try to challenge the move, as can be done through the courts.
‘It’s not going to affect my speaking out, my criticisms of Mr. Trump. I’m going to try to do it in a professional way,’ Brennan said.

The former FBI director practically urged voters to oust Trump and his supporters from office in the statement that said, ‘American voters must not shrug off or be distracted from the terrible behaviors of this president, who lies to the American people every day, encourages racism, is a misogynist’
Comey hasn’t had a security clearance for many months. McCabe, a former top FBI official, had his clearance deactivated when he was fired from the FBI, said his spokesman Melissa Schwartz when Sanders first said clearances were on the table.
On CNN, where he is paid to provide commentary, Clapper said that he has not personally had access to current intelligence since January of 2017 when he left the government.
‘It seems like they’re kind of making up the criterion as they go here,’ he said,’on a very individual basis.’
Clapper said the threat of having their clearances revoked is an ‘infringement of our right to speak, and apparently the appropriateness of being critical of this president. of which — in one degree or another, all of us have been.
‘I thought the mention of Jim Comey and Andy McCabe, who don’t have their clearances any more, it is sort of a cover for naming them in the first place, which was a non-sequitur.’
He vowed, like Brennan, to keep speaking out about actions he disagrees with in the administration.
‘I don’t plan to stop speaking,’ he said. ‘There are some things I’ve agreed with that this administration’s taken, actions they have taken, but lots of things that I don’t agree with. So, if they’re saying that I can’t — the only way I can speak is to be in an adulation mode of this president, I’m sorry, I don’t think I can sign up for that.’
Comey said in a statement that he posted to Twitter that Trump is once again ‘sending a message that he will punish people who disagree with him and reward those who praise him.’
‘In a democracy, security clearances should not be used as pawns in a petty political game to distract voters from even bigger problems.’
The former FBI director practically urged voters to oust Trump and his supporters from office in the statement that said, ‘American voters must not shrug off or be distracted from the terrible behaviors of this president, who lies to the American people every day, encourages racism, is a misogynist and always puts his own interests above those of the United States of America.’
‘Politicians enabling this president should be held accountable in future elections,’ he added.
John McLaughlin, the former Deputy Director of Central Intelligence, also slammed the decision on MSNBC – and noted that the action could lead to a court case if Brennan wants to push the issue.
He said the message was: ‘Be careful what you say if you have a clearance and if you’re worried about having it revoked.’

RUSH JOB: President Trump’s statement on Brennan was given to reporters with a nearly month-old date – a possible indication it was rushed out amid the political chaos of the week during Omarosa’s book tour

Trump’s statement cited Brennan’s ‘wild outbursts on the internet and television’ as a reason for yanking his security clearances

The president is also evaluating clearances of other critics, including former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper and former FBI Director James Comey
Sanders announced the clearance revocation at the top of her briefing, which was suddenly announce just an hour before it was scheduled to being as the White House reeled from criticism that it forced aides to sign non-disclosure agreements that prohibit them from disparaging the president.
Hayden noted the irony on an interview later with CNN, saying, ‘To bring two stories that are current full circle and to touch one another, it’s almost as if they wanted us to at least implicitly sign a no disparagement agreement.’
Brennan had been blasting Trump on MSNBC’s airwaves shortly before Sanders cut him off at the knees.
He said Trump had ‘badly sullied’ the office of the presidency and smacked him for ‘befriending of autocratic governments.’ He also called Trump ‘the most divisive president we’ve ever had in the Oval Office.’
But it wasn’t just his public statements that put Brennan on Trump’s bad side. He played an integral role in the early days of the Russia probe that Trump calls a ‘hoax.’
He told the House Intelligence Committee last year he was concerned during the campaign that Trump campaign officials were being manipulated by Russians. As head of the CIA he would have had access to the nation’s top-level information.
‘I was worried by a number of the contacts that the Russians had with U.S. persons,’ Brennan testified, saying he ‘felt as though the FBI investigation was certainly well-founded and needed to look into those issues.’
House Speaker Paul Ryan, who gets top level intelligence information as the third highest-ranking, elected official in the government, declined to get into the issue at a Wednesday afternoon conference.
‘This is something that is in the purview of the executive branch,’ Ryan said of Brennan’s revoked clearance.
He noted that some of Trump’s named targets no longer had clearances, anyway.
Last month, when asked about the threat that Trump might curtail access to classified information, Ryan had dismissed the issue. ‘I think he’s trolling people, honestly,’ the Republican leader said.
CNN reported that Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats was not informed in advance of the decision. The DNI was also surprised in July amid a live interview with the news that Trump intended to have a second summit this year with Russian strongman Vladimir Putin.
Trump had days before, at a joint news conference with Putin, dismissed his national security apparatus’ judgement that Russia was responsible for election-timed hacking. He backtracked afterward, saying he believed intelligence community officials like Coats and Brennan who pegged the bad actions to the Kremlin.
Still, the incident laid bare the growing divide between Trump and his own, politically-appointed intelligence and law enforcement officials.
Trump has ordered his attorney general to end the Russia probe, threatening to infringe on the department’s independence if Jeff Sessions won’t. He has asked twice this week why Sessions has refused to fire Ohr.
Emboldened by the firing of ex-agent Peter Strzok, who is also on the list of officials whose clearances are being reviewed, the president put pressure on DOJ to fire Ohr, whose has been identified as the go-between between the Department of Justice and Fusion GPS for the Christopher Steele dossier.
The Justice Department transferred the career official in December following the revelation that Ohr met with the former British spy who put together the infamous dossier of salacious allegations about Trump.
Ohr’s wife, Nellie, worked at the firm, Fusion GPS, that commissioned the dossier.
The Justice Department lawyer was not on the team of agents investigating election meddling and the Trump campaign’s alleged ties to the Kremlin. He had known the former spy for years, however, and Ohr is a scholar on Russia and the Soviet Union.
The pressure came as Trump once again leaned on Sessions to end the Russia probe publicly this week. ‘If we had a real Attorney General, this Witch Hunt would never have been started! Looking at the wrong people,’ Trump tweeted.
After Trump gleefully tweeted that former FBI official Andrew McCabe was ‘FIRED,’ earlier this year, Brennan pushed back highly personal terms.
‘When the full extent of your venality, moral turpitude, and political corruption becomes known, you will take your rightful place as a disgraced demagogue in the dustbin of history. You may scapegoat Andy McCabe, but you will not destroy America…America will triumph over you,’ he wrote.
Vice President Joe Biden called the move to revoke Brennan’s clearance as a result of the attacks on Trump ‘unbecoming of a president.’ He added: ‘If you think it will silence John, then you just don’t know the man.’
Hayden, appearing on CNN, said, ‘The way that Sarah Huckabee Sanders rolled this out was almost in a tone to be threatening to the rest of us.’
‘In other words, it looked to me like an attempt to make us change the things we are saying when we’re asked questions on CNN or other networks,’ he explained. ‘And I frankly for those of us who appear routinely on air it’s not going to have that effect.’
Hayden, who ran the NSA under President George W. Bush and Barack Obama, said: ‘You’ve got to tell the truth, and if something’s not right or not true, you have to point that out. Annd that implied threat isn’t going to change what I think, say or write.’
Asked about the statement blaming Brennan for ‘erratic’ behavior, Hayden responded: ‘I do try to make this not personal. But if our standard for having a clearance is avoiding erratic behavior, we’ve got a lot of other folks we need to look at,’ he said, without identifying them.
CNN’s Jake Tapper asked Hayden if he was referring to the president, however, and Hayden said that he was.