Donald Trump revokes Joe Biden’s security clearance in latest revenge move | Joe Biden

President Donald Trump has said he’s revoking Joe Biden’s security clearance and ending the daily intelligence briefings he’s receiving, in payback for Biden doing the same to him in the wake of the January 6 attacks.

Trump announced his decision in a post saying: “There is no need for Joe Biden to continue receiving access to classified information. Therefore, we are immediately revoking Joe Biden’s security clearances, and stopping his daily intelligence briefings.

“He set this precedent in 2021, when he instructed the intelligence community (IC) to stop the 45th president of the United States (me!) from accessing details on national security, a courtesy provided to former presidents.”

Former presidents traditionally receive some intelligence briefings even after they have left office.

Biden ended Trump’s intelligence briefings after Trump helped spur efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election and incited the January 6 attack on the Capitol. At the time, Biden said Trump’s “erratic” behaviour should prevent him from getting the intel briefings.

Asked in an interview with CBS News what he feared if Trump continued to receive the briefings, Biden said at the time he did not want to “speculate out loud” but made clear he did not want Trump to continue having access to such information.

“I just think that there is no need for him to have the intelligence briefings,” Biden said. “What value is giving him an intelligence briefing? What impact does he have at all, other than the fact he might slip and say something?”

Biden didn’t immediately comment on Friday’s move.

Trump’s move is the latest in a vengeance tour of Washington that he promised during his campaign.

He has previously revoked security clearances from more than four dozen former intelligence officials who signed a 2020 letter saying that the Hunter Biden laptop saga bore the hallmarks of a “Russian information operation”.

He’s also revoked security details assigned to protect former government officials who have criticised him, including his own former secretary of state, Mike Pompeo and former infectious disease expert Dr Anthony Fauci.

In a related matter, Trump dismissed Colleen Shogan as the archivist of the United States, White House aide Sergio Gor posted on X Friday night.

Trump had said in early January that he would replace the head of the National Archives and Records Administration. The government agency drew his anger after it informed the justice department about issues with Trump’s handling of classified documents. Shogan, the first woman in the post, wasn’t the archivist of the United States at the time the issue emerged.

In 2022, federal agents searched Trump’s Florida home and seized boxes of classified records. He was indicted on dozens of felony counts accusing him of illegally hoarding classified records and obstructing FBI efforts to get them back. He pleaded not guilty and denied wrongdoing. A judge dismissed the charges, ruling the special counsel who brought them was illegally appointed. The justice department gave up appeals after Trump was elected in November.

In his Friday post on Biden, Trump cited the special counsel report last year into his handling of classified documents, saying, “The Hur Report revealed that Biden suffers from ‘poor memory’ and, even in his ‘prime’, could not be trusted with sensitive information.”

Special counsel Robert Hur investigated Biden’s handling of classified information and found that criminal charges were not warranted but delivered a bitingly critical assessment of his handling of sensitive government records. The report described Biden’s memory as “hazy,” “fuzzy,” “faulty,” “poor” and having “significant limitations.” It said Biden could not recall defining milestones in his own life such as when his son Beau died or when he served as vice-president.

With Associated Press and Reuters