Washington – President Trump took executive action on Monday to revoke the security clearances of his former national security adviser, John Bolton, and dozens of intelligence officials who signed the deal. Letter In 2020, emails found on a laptop owned by Hunter Biden claimed to identify a Russian disinformation campaign.
was part of the executive action Several measures were signed It comes hours after Mr Trump was sworn in for a second term in office and it is one of the first steps he has taken to target people he considers political rivals now that he has returned to the White House.
Mr. Trump said in his Order The letter's signers “deliberately weaponized the intelligence community's seriousness to manipulate the political process and undermine our democratic institutions.”
“The Intelligence Community's fabrications to suppress information vital to the American people during a presidential election are reminiscent of a Third World country,” the order said. “And now Americans' confidence in all the other patriotic intelligence professionals sworn to protect the nation is at risk.”
Mr Trump has repeatedly and falsely claimed that the 2020 presidential election, which he lost to former President Joe Biden, was stolen. Recently on Monday he continued to make his allegations about the last election when he told supporters after his inauguration That the 2020 contest was “completely rigged”.
The letter released was signed by 51 former intelligence officers and released in October 2020 New York Post reported on email retrieved from a laptop computer Discovered at a Delaware repair shop. the shop owner said the laptop was left In 2019 by Hunter Biden, the former president's son.
,[T]“The arrival on the American political scene of emails allegedly belonging to Vice President Biden’s son Hunter, much of it related to his tenure on the board of Ukrainian gas company Burisma, has all the classic hallmarks of a Russian information operation,” officials said in their Wrote in the letter.
He said he did not know whether the emails were “genuine or not” and that he did not have evidence that Russia was involved, but added that his “experience makes us deeply suspect that the Russian government played a significant role in this matter.” Played a role.”
Among those who signed the letter – and are named in Mr Trump's order – are former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, former CIA and NSA director Michael Hayden and former CIA Director John Brennan. Of the 51 signatories, two have died.
The president accused officials of coordinating with the Biden campaign to release the letter. His order directs the Director of National Intelligence, in consultation with the head of the CIA, to withdraw their security clearances if they are still active.
The order targets Bolton, who served for more than a year as Mr Trump's national security adviser during his first term and wrote a book about his time in the role.
The President accused Bolton of publishing sensitive information and said that the book's publication created a “serious risk that classified material would be publicly exposed.”