Ryan: Trump ‘trolling people’ by threatening revoking clearances

Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) suggested President Trump is “trolling” several former top intelligence officials by threatening to revoke their security clearance.

“I think he’s trolling people, honestly,” Ryan told reporters on Tuesday. “This is something that is in the purview of the executive branch. I think some of these people have lost their clearance already; some people keep their clearances.

“That’s something that the executive branch deals with. That’s not really in our purview,” he added.

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A day earlier, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said the Trump administration is considering revoking the security clearance for a number of former officials. Those officials, who served in top levels of the Obama administration, have been highly critical of Trump.

The list of possible targets includes former CIA Director John Brennan; former FBI Director James Comey; James Clapper, former director of national intelligence; retired Gen. Michael Hayden, another former director of the CIA; former national security adviser Susan Rice; and former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe.