Purged by Tweet

What my clearance revocation taught me about the destruction of a nonpartisan public service.

I spent 41 years serving the Intelligence Community. One year ago, my security clearance was revoked by an X post. I received no warning, no interview, no specific allegation and no explanation. I still don’t know what I supposedly did wrong. But I now understand what the purge was designed to accomplish: not simply to punish people like me, but to frighten everyone still serving into silence.

“Just saw the list, Harry. Very sorry. What did you do? Your writings haven’t been that directly anti-Trump, have they? Many on FB have been much more outspoken.”

“What list? Did I miss something?”

(Personal email exchange 19 August, 2025)

On August 19, 2025, the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) revoked my security clearance along with 36 others.

This is how I found out that my security clearance, after 41 years of working in the Intelligence Community, had been suddenly and arbitrarily revoked via an X-Post (a Tweet!) from the DNI. A friend and colleague had to give me a heads-up. First, I am not on Facebook, X, or other social media and had not been posting anything, much less political commentary on the Trump administration. In fact, it was a struggle to find the actual text of the DNI X-Post, which stated that I, along with 36 others, politicized intelligence, had not safeguarded information properly, had violated unspecified tradecraft guidelines, and had conducted some other unstated action which negatively impacted my trustworthiness.

All the mandatory annual training on politicization and information handling over decades in the IC indicated that the actions we were accused of would have entailed DNI contact with my management beforehand; there was none, and it would have involved interviewing or at least informing us. A year later, there has been no contact, including no contact informing me of the action. There has only been the X-Post and instructions to my company (I was a contractor at the time) to read me out, resulting in lost employment.

Unspecified Tradecraft Errors and Unstated Actions

The X-Post did not specify any, and the absence of any other communication indicates that this was just an unsubstantiated throw-away accusation. While the unstated actions remind me of the “double secret probation” from the movie Animal House, it is more frighteningly reminiscent of the standard tactic in dictatorships to instill fear among those remaining; Stalin at the height of the 1930’s purges would approve.

Open-source reporting indicates that the DNI produced this list in response to Trump’s continued grievances about intelligence reporting and analysis that said Russia interfered in the 2016 election to aid then-candidate Trump. A review of that analysis in the summer of 2025 largely affirmed this analysis. Ever eager to please Trump, the DNI responded by cobbling together a list of people to sacrifice anyway.

I have no idea of the criteria and rationale for the selections. For myself, I was very surprised because I wasn’t a Russia analyst and I did not work on the Intelligence Community Assessment (ICA) that was produced on Russian interference in the 2016 election. As I looked down the list of 37 people, I thought it was “remarkable” that all 37 of us could be guilty of the same identical things and that I did not know many people on the list; so much for a deep state conspiracy. It is even more remarkable since individuals on this list no longer had clearances or did not know the clearances were still active, and included people who were not even in government at the time of the 2016 election. (Such foresight in anticipating the 2016 election could have made a fortune for someone in the prediction markets!)

A Tiny Example of a Vastly Larger Problem

Many people may not grasp that someone can commit to a mission or set of ideals larger than themselves. They may shrug at the Trump administration’s actions against public service and government, assuming there’s plenty of waste in the federal government that needs to be cut anyway. They will not understand until the consequences hit them directly, or in their own bottom line.

But the Trump administration and MAGA are definitely not indifferent; they are actively hostile to the idea of public service, to commitment to ideals beyond oneself, and to anything short of glorifying Trump. Moreover, this administration has made revenge and retaliation a leading principle of its “Human Resources” policy. Beyond salving Trump’s easily bruised ego and insatiable, Mafia-like lust for payback, the goal is to intimidate the rest of the public service. Under loud, repeated, but vague accusations of a “deep state,” the Trump administration and MAGA world is seeking to destroy the nonpartisan public service. The apolitical public service policy is a deeply held belief by the likes of OMB Director Russell Vought, who has exploited Trump’s narcissistic “management style” to inflict major damage on the public service and government, laying the foundation to undermine democracy and thereby perpetuate MAGA control. As is noted in Russell Travers’s recent book “Common Sense Take 2: A Call to Renew Democracy,” a non-political/partisan public service is essential to a functioning democracy.

To borrow from Humphrey Bogart in the movie Casablanca, my experience “doesn’t matter to a hill of beans in this crazy world”, but it’s one tiny example of a vastly larger problem.

Harry Hannah retired after four decades of experience in the Intelligence Community. He retired from the CIA in 2018. About half that time was focused on analyzing the capability of multiple foreign militaries in direct support of US military planning and operations and national level decision making. He is a member of The Steady State.

All statements of fact, opinion, or analysis expressed are those of the author and do not reflect the official positions or views of the US Government. Nothing in the contents should be construed as asserting or implying US Government authentication of information or endorsement of the author’s views.

Founded in 2016, The Steady State is a nonprofit 501(c)(4) organization of more than 400 former senior national security professionals. Our membership includes former officials from the CIA, FBI, Department of State, Department of Defense, and Department of Homeland Security. Drawing on deep expertise across national security disciplines, including intelligence, diplomacy, military affairs, and law, we advocate for constitutional democracy, the rule of law, and the preservation of America’s national security institutions.