Politics
JUST IN: Trump Bars Letitia James, Alvin Bragg From All Federal Buildings
President Donald Trump has stripped security clearances from a number of left-wing lawmakers and officials, including New York Attorney General Letitia James, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and former Secretary of State Antony Blinken, among several others.
Just hours after revoking President Biden’s security clearance and access to classified intelligence briefings, Trump has shifted his attention to one of the ex-president’s top underlings in former Secretary of State Antony Blinken. Just weeks before the 2020 election, Blinken circulated a bogus memo claiming that the infamous Hunter Biden laptop was a “Russian disinformation operation.”
A total of 51 former intelligence officers signed the letter, which was used a justification to suppress the story on social media, while mainstream media outlets used it to claim the bombshell story wasn’t true. All signees of the letter have also lost their security clearances and have lost access to secure U.S. federal buildings.
Blinken’s security clearances will likewise be revoked, keeping in line with the same presidential directive aimed at Biden and the 51 former intelligence officers.“Bad guy. Take away his passes,” Trump said of Blinken in an interview with the New York Post.
“This is to take away every right they have [revoking security clearances] including they can’t go into [federal] buildings,” the president added.
Blinken addresses State Department employees in January 2021 Photo: U.S. State Department
New York Attorney General Letitia James and Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg will also be joining the list of eight Democrat lawmakers and operatives who will lose any access to classified information and be barred from federal facilities. The president told The Post that they will be given “the exact same punishment” as Biden and the 51 intelligence officers for engaging in election interference and mishandling of classified information.
For Bragg and James — both of whom have engaged in dubious, politically motivated prosecutions against Trump — the move is largely expected to be symbolic. It could hinder them from carrying out their official duties by prohibiting them from entering federal courthouses, prisons and offices of federal agencies. They also will not be able to set foot in the US Attorney’s offices for the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York, in Manhattan and Brooklyn.
“It’s more an insult and a slap in the face than a real deterrent,” said attorney Bob Costello, a former Manhattan federal prosecutor who testified in Trump’s defense during Bragg’s hush money trial.
In addition to the three aforementioned officials, Biden’s former National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, who played a key role in crafting the debunked Russian collusion hoax, will also lose his clearances. As will Biden’s former Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco, who, like Sullivan, was a key player in the Russian collusion hoax and the malicious prosecutions of January 6 protesters.
Additional targets include Andrew Weissman, who was the lead prosecutor on Special Counsel Mueller’s Russian collusion probe, attorney Mark Zaid, who represented a number of anti-Trump government officials, and Norm Eisen, special counsel to the Democrat-led House Judiciary Committee during the impeachment.
