US President Donald Trump on Saturday, revoked security clearances from his previously defeated Democratic election rivals.
The security clearances for Kamala Harris and Hillary Clinton, as well as some other top former officials have thus been revoked.
Media reports say the move comes after Trump said in February he was revoking security clearance for his predecessor Joe Biden.
He confirmed the move in the latest announcement.
He added that he was also revoking the security clearance of “any other member” of the Biden family.
“I have determined that it is no longer in the national interest for the following individuals to access classified information,” Trump’s memorandum read.
Traditionally, former presidents and senior officials retain access to classified information to provide advisory support to serving presidents.
However, President Trump has departed from this norm.
He cited the previous revocation of his own access to intelligence briefings by the Biden administration in 2021 as justification.
Critics view this move as a retaliatory measure against political adversaries, intensifying the partisan divide in Washington.
Former Secretary of State Antony Blinken and former Republican lawmakers Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger also lost their security clearances.
Another official who suffered the same fate were Fiona Hill, a former Russian affairs adviser in the first Trump administration.
The other names were: Jake Sullivan, Lisa Monaco, Mark Zaid, Norman Eisen, Letitia James, Alvin Bragg, Andrew Weissmann and Alexander Vindman.
Trump had earlier pulled security clearances of more than four dozen former intelligence officials.
He had accused them of meddling in the 2020 election in Biden’s favour without providing evidence.
In 2021, Biden, serving president at the time, barred his defeated rival Trump from having access to intelligence briefings.
Biden cited Trump’s “erratic behaviour”.
Many analysts have said alleged that President Trump has personal vendetta on his mind prior to taking office on his second coming.
