Tulsi Gabbard strips security clearances from 37 officials over Russiagate

More than three dozen intelligence professionals who “abused the public trust” have had their security clearances stripped at the direction of President Donald Trump.

A memo from Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard on Tuesday announced the names of the 37 current and former officials, which included those involved in the Obama-era report that led to the Russia hoax against Trump, and some who supported Democrats’ efforts to impeach the president during his first term in office.

“Being entrusted with a security clearance is a privilege, not a right. Those in the Intelligence Community who betray their oath to the Constitution and put their own interests ahead of the interests of the American people have broken the sacred trust they promised to uphold,” Gabbard said in a post on X.

Being entrusted with a security clearance is a privilege, not a right. Those in the Intelligence Community who betray their oath to the Constitution and put their own interests ahead of the interests of the American people have broken the sacred trust they promised to uphold. In… pic.twitter.com/23DUNuVAi0

— DNI Tulsi Gabbard (@DNIGabbard) August 19, 2025

Gabbard explained that at Trump’s direction, she “directed the revocation of the security clearances of 37 current and former intelligence professionals who have abused the public trust by politicizing and manipulating intelligence, leaking classified intelligence without authorization, and/or committing intentional egregious violations of tradecraft standards.”

This included former aides to Obama DNI James Clapper, ex-Principal Deputy DNI Stephanie O’Sullivan, and Vinh Nguyen, who reportedly helped with the 2017 Intelligence Community Assessment (ICA) on Russia’s so-called interference in the 2016 election.

In declassifying records last month, Gabbard called the work on the controversial 2017 report a “treasonous conspiracy” by senior Obama administration officials “to subvert President Trump’s 2016 victory.”

(Video Credit: Fox News)

Loren DeJonge Schulman, who served as a senior adviser to Obama’s national security adviser, Susan Rice, had her security clearance revoked, as did Samantha Vinograd, who worked at the Department of Homeland Security under former President Joe Biden as the assistant secretary for counterterrorism, threat prevention, and law enforcement policy.

Vinograd was reportedly part of a group calling for then-presidential nominee Trump to “share details of his overseas business investments before Election Day” in 2016, according to the New York Times.

A former member of Obama’s National Security Council, Andrew Miller, was also named in Gabbard’s memo and had his security clearance revoked. Miller served as deputy assistant secretary of state for Israeli-Palestinian Affairs in the State Department’s Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs in the Biden administration.

The nearly 40 individuals named in Gabbard’s message immediately had their access to “classified systems, facilities, materials, and information” revoked. Contracts or employment with the government are terminated, and  any credentials “must be surrendered.”

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Originally from New York, Powers graduated from New York University and eventually made her way to sunny South Florida where she has been writing for the BizPacReview team since 2015.

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