Opinion| On Friday, former CIA Director John Brennan and former DNI James Clapper slammed President Donald Trump over his having pushed Attorney General William Barr to declassify documents having to do with Spygate, calling it “outrageous.”
“I see it as a very, very serious and outrageous move on the part of Mr. Trump, once again, trampling on the statutory authorities of the Director of National Intelligence and the heads of the independent intelligence agencies,” Brennan said to MSNBC host Chris Hayes. He continued, “And it’s unclear to me what Mr. Barr is actually going to do. Is he investigating a crime? Well, what’s the predication of that crime? Or he is just going to be looking for information… that Mr. Trump can just give to his defenders on the right and cherry-pick information that could be taken out of context?”
The former CIA Director seemed to be concerned about exposing “sources and methods” in addition to the intelligence of “partners abroad.”
“This is very serious and I know that my former colleagues in the intelligence agencies are looking upon this with great concern and worry,” the former Obama White House official stated.
Fox reported that Brennan later “said he hopes that DNI Dan Coats and CIA Director Gina Haspel will ‘stand up’ to President Trump’s ‘unprecedented act.’ Brennan slammed President Trump on Twitter after the president shared a political cartoon mocking the former CIA Director, former DNI Clapper, and FBI Director James Comey.”
Do you think @JohnBrennan is trying to obstruct justice by calling upon Dan Coats and Gina Haspel to "Stand-up" to DOJ & AG Barr Review and @POTUS' Declassification Order ? || WATCH VIDEO BEFORE VOTE & RETWEET => https://t.co/NGJ8w67X7J
— Sara A. Carter (@SaraCarterDC) May 25, 2019
Brennan stated, “But I do hope that Dan Coats and Gina Haspel stand up to this [declassification] effort by Mr. Trump. Which really does seem to go into the sensitive files, the very sensitive…would be technical or human source files and to pull out of that information that they may see fit as to defend Mr. Trump. And I implore Dan Coats, Gina Haspel and others to stand-up to this unprecedented act by Mr. Trump who doesn’t understand nor care about the national security concerns of the intelligence community”
