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During an interview on MSNBC following the announcement, Brennan said he learned about the administration's decision after a friend told him Sanders was delivering a statement concerning him during the press briefing.

\"I do believe that Mr. Trump decided to take this action, as he's done with others, to try to intimidate and suppress any criticism of him or his administration. And revoking my security clearances is his way of trying to get back at me,\" Brennan said.

Brennan has been a vocal critic of the president since leaving public service.

Following Trump's press conference in Helsinki with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Brennan called Trump's performance \"nothing short of treasonous.\"

One week later, Sen. Rand Paul, R-Kentucky, a national security hawk and Trump ally on Capitol Hill, announced on Twitter that he met with the president at the White House to tell him \"John Brennan and others [sic] partisans should have their clearances revoked.\"

Just got out of WH meeting with @realDonaldTrump. I restated to him what I have said in public: John Brennan and others partisans should have their security clearances revoked.

— Senator Rand Paul (@RandPaul) July 23, 2018

Shortly after, Sanders announced that the White House was not only looking into revoking the clearance of Brennan but former intelligence officials like FBI Director James Comey and former Director of the Central Intelligence Committee Michael Hayden as well.

\"The President is exploring the mechanisms to remove security clearance because they've politicized and, in some cases, monetized their public service and security clearances,\" Sanders said.

Both the White House and the National Security Council declined to comment on the process that went into removing his clearance, or the administration parties involved.

It's unclear when the White House made the final decision to revoke Brennan's clearance, but it goes into effect immediately. The president's announcement comes as the White House has been on the defense and inundated with questions about salacious claims made by former Trump advisor Omarosa Manigault Newman in her book, \"Unhinged.\"

Brennan might not be the only former official to lose security clearance.

Sanders said the president is also more broadly reviewing access to classified information by government officials and named others who are also now under specific review: James Clapper, the former Director of National Intelligence, James Comey, a former FBI director who Trump fired last year, Michael Hayden, a former Director of the National Security Agency, Sally Yates, a former Deputy Attorney General, Susan Rice, a former National Security Advisor, Andrew McCabe, a former deputy director of the FBI, Peter Strzok a recently fired FBI agent, Lisa Page, a former FBI lawyer and Bruce Ohr, a former associate deputy attorney general.

Hayden said the way Sanders made the president's announcement was \"threatening.\"

\"The way that Sarah Huckabee Sanders rolled this out was almost in a tone to be threatening to the rest of us. In other words, it looks to me like an attempt to make us change the things we are saying when we're asked questions on CNN or other networks,\" Hayden said. \"You have to tell the truth and something's not right or not true, you have to point that out. And that implied threat isn't going to change what I think, say or write.\"

\"PHOTO:
Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP
PHOTO: Former CIA Director John Brennan testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., May 23, 2017, before the House Intelligence Committee Russia Investigation Task Force.
>

In an exchange with ABC News' Jon Karl, Sanders denied that the president is going after his political opponents with this action.

“No. If there were others that weren't, that we deemed necessary, we would certainly take a look and review those as well,” Sanders said.

Ranking Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Mark Warner, D- Virginia, said the president's decision was \"Nixonian.\"

\"These people were being singled out to have even appointed to this revoke or in the process of being to smacks of Nixonian type practices of trying to silence anyone who is going to criticize this president, \"he said.

President Richard Nixon's aides famously compiled a political enemies list – although it was secret.

\"I've seen this type of behavior and actions on the part of foreign tyrants and depots and autocrat in my national security career,\" Brennan said. \"I never thought I would see it here in the United States.\"

ABC News' Mariam Khan contributed to this report.

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