Brennan considers 'going to court' with Trump over revoked security clearance
CNN/Stylemagazine.com Newswire | 8/20/2018, 9:55 a.m.
Former CIA Director John Brennan
By Caroline Kelly, CNN
(CNN) -- Former CIA director John Brennan said Sunday that he was willing to pursue legal action against President Donald Trump after he revoked Brennan's security clearance earlier this week.
"If my clearances and my reputation, as I'm being pulled through the mud now, if that's the price we're going to pay to prevent Donald Trump from doing this against other people, to me it's a small price to pay," Brennan said on NBC's "Meet the Press." "So I am going to do whatever I can personally to try to prevent these abuses in the future, and if it means going to court, I will do that."
Brennan, a harsh critic of Trump, also stood by his comments last month when he called Trump's actions alongside Russian President Vladimir Putin in a news conference after their summit in Helsinki, Finland, "nothing short of treasonous."
Trump revoked Brennan's security clearance Wednesday, saying Brennan's history "calls into question his objectivity and credibility." Trump later connected his decision to revoke Brennan's clearance with the former CIA director's involvement in the Russia investigation, The Wall Street Journal reported.
"I call it the rigged witch hunt, [it] is a sham. And these people led it!" Trump told the newspaper. "So I think it's something that had to be done."
Brennan also filed an op-ed in The New York Times on Thursday morning in which he called Trump's denials of Russian interference in US elections "hogwash."
