Kevin Daley on August 19, 2018
Former CIA Director John Brennan seemed to promise a lawsuit Sunday after President Donald Trump revoked his security clearance for “erratic conduct and behavior.”
Trump’s personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, welcomed Brennan’s threat.
“I have been contacted by a number of lawyers, and they have already given me their thoughts about the basis for a complaint, an injunction to try to prevent him from doing this in the future,” Brennan told Chuck Todd Sunday on MSNBC’s “Meet the Press.”
“I am going to do whatever I can personally to try to prevent these abuses in the future,” he added. “And if it means going to court, I will do that.”
Brennan has previously indicated that he is considering legal action.
Speaking to Fox News’ Maria Bartiromo shortly after Brennan’s interview, Giuliani said he relished the opportunity to question the former CIA director under oath.
“We’ll take his deposition right away,” Giuliani said. “As the plaintiff he’d have to go first. I’d volunteer to do that case for the president. I’d love to have Brennan under oath for I don’t know how many days — two, three days? We’ll find out about Brennan.”
Giuliani went on to suggest that he would question Brennan about alleged intelligence failures that took place under his leadership, including the 1996 Khobar Towers bombing in Saudi Arabia, a terror attack which killed 19 U.S. servicemen while he was CIA station chief in Riyadh. He also alluded to Brennan’s 1976 vote for the Communist Party USA’s presidential candidate, Gus Hall.
In a 1988 case called Department of the Navy v. Egan, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that federal courts do not have jurisdiction to hear substantive challenges to the revocation of a security clearance. However, national security commentators have noted that federal courts occasionally use an exception to Egan — which permits challenges to procedures respecting personnel decisions — to review clearance determinations.
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