On March 23, Donald Trump moved decisively to revoke the security clearances of several figures from the Biden era and beyond—including Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, and Hillary Clinton. The action sent a clear message: access to sensitive national security information is a privilege, not a lifetime entitlement.
What’s more, Trump, as president, has every right to pull those clearances. In a memo revoking them, President Trump wrote, “I have determined that it is no longer in the national interest for the following individuals to access classified information.”
One of the individuals whose security clearance was revoked is attorney Mark Zaid. Zaid previously served as counsel for Susan Monarez, who was removed from her role as director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in August.
Rather than accept the decision quietly, Zaid went on the offensive. In May, he filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration, claiming his clearance was pulled as “improper political retribution.” Predictably, ABC News rushed to launder the narrative, breathlessly describing Zaid as a “whistleblower attorney.”
In response to the lawsuit, White House spokesman Harrison Fields correctly noted: “The decision to grant any individual access to this nation’s secrets is a sensitive judgment call entrusted to the President. Weighing these factors and implementing such decisions are core executive powers, and reviewing the President’s clearance decisions falls well beyond the judiciary’s authority.”
But of course, in the age of judge-shopping, naturally Zaid’s attorney found a federal judge – the first “Muslim and Arab” judge who was appointed by Biden, no less and who hates Trump – to do something completely improper and well outside his scope: Tell Trump that the president can’t do what every other president can and has done since the modern intelligence era began. And it’s a ruling attorney Mike Davis called “lawless and dangerous.”
“Judge Ali, who is still a foreign citizen, previously ordered the President could not perform a national security review of $2 billion in foreign aid,” Davis wrote. When Ali ruled in that case, Davis sounded the alarm on his radical ties and background, writing, “In the lame-duck session after Democrats lost the White House and Senate on November 5, 2024, Senate Democrats confirmed Ali on November 20 with a vote of 50-49.” Davis points out that Ali, who was born in Canada, served as a clerk for the Canadian Supreme Court and led a Leftist group advocating for the defunding of the police.
In any event, all intelligence products are produced solely for the president, no one else. And also, Trump holds the authority under Article II of the Constitution to grant or deny security clearances based on his discretion.
“Even if there is somehow a ‘bad’ reason for the denial of security clearance, the remedy is never for a judge to order the transmittal of classified materials to someone over the President’s objection. It’s clearly unconstitutional. And it is likely espionage,” Davis wrote in a subsequent social media post.
“We need a national Muslim ban now. We’re dangerously close to becoming the U.K.,” wrote one social media user. “When is Congress going to do something about these judges?” asked another. Meanwhile, conservatives are also calling for Ali’s impeachment.
In a statement, Zaid said, “This is not just a victory for me, it’s an indictment of the Trump administration’s attempts to intimidate and silence the legal community, especially lawyers who represent people who dare to question or hold this government accountable.”
In a social media post, he also called for a coup against President Trump, as well as his impeachment. So this clown not only needs his security clearance revoked, he needs to be arrested, tried, and convicted for sedition. The sooner the better.
