White House confirms Brennan’s security clearance has been revoked

The White House confirmed Tuesday that former CIA Director John Brennan’s security clearance has been revoked, after Brennan said he was “uncertain” if he still had clearance.

“The President’s order went into effect immediately, and Mr. Brennan no longer has access to classified information,” White House spokesman Hogan Gidley told The Hill.

President Trump, through a statement read by White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders during a briefing, revoked Brennan’s security clearance earlier this month.

But more than two weeks later, Brennan said that he still had not heard any more information from the White House since that announcement.

{mosads}”The only thing I’ve heard about my security clearances from the government is when Sarah Huckabee Sanders said at the podium that my clearance had been stripped. I have not been contacted by anybody at all either before or since then,” Brennan said on MSNBC.

“So, whether or not my clearance has been stripped, I’m still uncertain about,” he added. “But she said it. She read something from Donald Trump.”

In his statement, Trump accused Brennan of using his position as a former top national security official to make “outrageous” claims about his administration, and said that his actions posed a national security threat.

“Mr. Brennan’s lying and recent conduct characterized by increasingly frenzied commentary is wholly inconsistent with access to the nation’s most closely held secrets and facilities, the very aim of our adversaries, which is to sow division and chaos,” Trump said.

The former CIA chief has been one of Trump’s harshest critics.

The move to revoke Brennan’s clearance sparked major backlash among the intelligence community. Brennan has also said he will consider legal action to block Trump from revoking other clearances.

Trump is also reviewing the clearance status of a number of other former officials who have been critical of him, including former FBI Director James Comey and former Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates.