White House 'not alerted to revoked security clearances'

Tulsi Gabbard, the director of US national intelligence, did not inform the White House that her office was revoking the security clearances of 37 people - including top deputies to the CIA director, John Ratcliffe - before it happened last month, according to three people familiar with the matter.

- Hugo Lowell

The move caused consternation because it resulted in the White House not having an opportunity to closely vet the list before it became public and there appeared to be no paper trail from the president directing the effort, the people said.

As a result, officials only realised after the fact that Gabbard had managed to pull the security clearances of career CIA officials, at least one of whom was a top adviser to Ratcliffe and had worked on some of the US’s most sensitive military operations, they said.

The list also included two Democratic congressional members of staff - Maher Bitar, the national security adviser to the senator Adam Schiff, and Thomas West, an aide on the Senate foreign relations committee - prompting fears the administration would be thrust into a messy separation-of-powers issue.