Trump revokes Biden's security clearance as senile ex-president 'cannot be trusted'
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Donald Trump is serving some payback Joe Biden's way by revoking his successor and predecessor's security clearance after Biden did the same to him in 2021.
Trump cited The Hur Report, which called Biden an 'elderly man' with 'significant' memory issues in their damning report of his mishandling of classified documents.
The move means Biden will no longer receive daily intelligence briefings after Trump made the announcement on social media shortly after arriving at Mar-a-Lago for the weekend.
'There is no need for Joe Biden to continue receiving access to classified information. Therefore, we are immediately revoking Joe Biden´s Security Clearances, and stopping his daily Intelligence Briefings,' Trump wrote.
'He set this precedent in 2021, when he instructed the Intelligence Community (IC) to stop the 45th President of the United States (ME!) from accessing details on National Security, a courtesy provided to former Presidents.'
Biden didn't immediately comment on the move.
The former president ended Trump's intelligence briefings after Trump helped spur efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election and incited the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.
At the time, Biden said Trump's 'erratic' behavior should prevent him from getting the intel briefings.
'What value is giving him an intelligence briefing? What impact does he have at all, other than the fact he might slip and say something?' Biden said at the time.
Donald Trump is serving some payback Joe Biden's way by revoking his successor and predecessor's security clearance after Biden did the same to him in 2021
Trump cited The Hur Report, which called Biden an 'elderly man' with 'significant' memory issues in their damning report of his mishandling of classified documents
In his post, Trump cited the special counsel report last year into Biden´s handling of classified documents, saying: 'The Hur Report revealed that Biden suffers from `poor memory´ and, even in his `prime,´ could not be trusted with sensitive information.'
He ended his post by saying, 'I will always protect our National Security - JOE, YOU'RE FIRED. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!'
The findings released by Special Counsel Robert Hur in February revealed a tranche of new photos showing boxes of sensitive files scattered around the garage of his Delaware home and interviews saying he had 'diminished faculties' back in 2017.
They included folders on the troop surge in Afghanistan that were dumped next to a dog bed and dog crate.
Although the report did not recommend bringing charges against the 81-year-old , it provides a cascade of damaging findings about files found in Biden's garage and personal office as well as the president's fitness for office.
In interviews with investigators, Biden became muddled about the dates he was vice president and could not even remember the year in which his son Beau died.
And it said his cavalier attitude to classified documents, such as his habit of reading sensitive files to a ghostwriter, posed a significant national security risk.
White House spokesman Ian Sams said at the time that the report offered a misleading account of the president's memory.
The move means Biden will no longer receive daily intelligence briefings after Trump made the announcement on social media shortly after arriving at Mar-a-Lago for the weekend
'The inappropriate criticisms of the president’s memory are inaccurate, gratuitous, and wrong,' he said. 'We told the Special Counsel this.'
For his part, Trump said the findings showed he had been unfairly targeted for prosecution in a two-tiered system.
'The Biden Documents Case is 100 times different and more severe than mine,' he said in an emailed statement. I did nothing wrong, and I cooperated far more.
'What Biden did is outrageously criminal - He had 50 years of documents, 50 times more than I had, and "WILLFULLY RETAINED" them.'
Hur's investigation was separate from Special Counsel Jack Smith's probe into Trump after he left the White House. Smith alleges Trump illegally retained secret documents at his home and then obstructed efforts to recover them.
Trump denies any wrongdoing.
In Biden's case, officials contacted the National Archives to return documents when they had been found at his former office. The FBI was notified and an investigation opened.
Hur said Biden could not be prosecuted as a sitting president.
'We would reach the same conclusion even if Department of Justice policy did not foreclose criminal charges against a sitting president,' his report said.
Critics of Biden pointed out how the Department of Justice homed in on the idea that jurors would give Biden leeway as a forgetful old man.
'If you're too senile to stand trial, then you're too senile to be president,' said Alex Pfeiffer, of the Trump-supporting political action committee Make America Great Again. 'Joe Biden is unfit to lead this nation.'
Trump has revoked the security clearances of several Biden allies and those who have been against him since his first term.
At least 50 former Washington insiders have been stripped of their clearances since Trump returned to the White House.
