On Monday’s edition of the Fox Business Network’s “Evening Edit,” former Deputy Chief of Staff to George W. Bush Karl Rove stated that he doesn’t believe former CIA Director John Brennan has any legal case over the revocation of his security clearance, but President Trump “does look like he’s political here. I wished he hadn’t revoked the clearance.”
Rove said, “I don’t think he has any property right whatsoever to a security clearance. And the president is the ultimate, I think the title is the original classifying authority. So, the president can remove or grant access to secret information on his own authority at any time. So, I don’t understand Brennan’s logic. If he goes to court, I don’t know of a single law that guarantees him, once he’s left government, that he has a property right to that security clearance.”
He added, “[T]he president does look like he’s political here. I wished he hadn’t revoked the clearance. Again, there’s no information that goes to Brennan on a regular basis. This only allows, if his successor called him in and said, I need to talk to you about this classified matter, that would give him the ability to hear what his successor had to say. But, look, I don’t — I think this thing is way overblown. I wish the president hadn’t done it. I really wish Brennan had not gone out there and accused the president of being treasonous.”
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