The blowback intensified on Thursday, when seven former C.I.A. directors issued a public letter supporting Brennan and denouncing the President’s decision. “We all agree that the president’s action regarding John Brennan and the threats of similar actions against other former officials has nothing to do with who should and should not hold security clearances—and everything to do with an attempt to stifle free speech,” the letter said. The letter’s signatories included William Webster, George Tenet, Porter Goss, Michael Hayden, Leon Panetta, David Petraeus, and Robert Gates, whose tenures as the head of the C.I.A. spanned five Presidents, from Ronald Reagan to Barack Obama. (Five former deputy directors of the Agency also signed the letter.)

That is quite a list. Even the stoutest Trump defenders will have difficulty describing the letter as a partisan political ambush, although, of course, that will not stop them from trying. And the letter wasn’t the only protest of its kind directed at Trump this week, or even the most cutting.

Also on Thursday, William McRaven, a retired Navy admiral who oversaw the 2011 Navy seal raid that killed Osama bin Laden, published an op-ed at the Washington Post, which begins, “Dear Mr. President, Former CIA director John Brennan, whose security clearance you revoked on Wednesday, is one of the finest public servants I have ever known.” The piece went on: “Therefore, I would consider it an honor if you would revoke my security clearance as well, so I can add my name to the list of men and women who have spoken up against your presidency.”

It appears that weeks before the American people knew that Donald Trump would be revoking former CIA Director John Brennan’s security clearance, and days before the White House memo declaring it, Russia knew.

Specifically, a Russian billionaire with known connections to Vladimir Putin tweeted out a list of names and declared their security clearance void. John Brennan was on that list. Two days later, Trump announced he was revoking Brennan’s security clearance. Three weeks later, the American public was informed.

Artem Klyushin, a Russian billionaire with a reported close friendship to Vladimir Putin, is also quite proud of his connections to Donald Trump, judging from his social media. Below you can see a tweet from 2013, in which he boasted of business dealings with Trump.

the tweet in question… Dated July 24th
The translation:

Ex-CIA directors John Brennan and Michael Hayden, ex-FBI director James Komi and his deputy Andrew McCabe, ex-director of the National Intelligence Service James Clapper, ex-national security adviser Susan Rice say goodbye to access to classified materials.

The traitors that support this have much to answer for…

Brennan, and the others he’s threatened with revocation, have clearances because they are on call as consultants and to advise officials in security agencies due to their long past experience and time on the job. They receive briefings so their expertise is up to date and is available when needed. Revoking their clearance because they have offended the President is akin to shutting down a newspaper because its editorial policy offends the President. Or maybe he’s going to start revoking people’s college degrees, or attorney memberships in the Bar, or medical diplomas. What’s next, shutting down businesses that don’t contribute to his campaigns, or going after late night talk show hosts? Maybe he’ll fire government employees just hours before they are eligible for their retirement pensions. That will get the message across.

Of course, like all his other outrages, this was done to test the waters, to see if he could get away with it. If he gets any resistance he will back off from the other names on his shit list. In the meantime, we are all distracted from Manafort and Amarosa.

This is much, much worse than saying the N-word. He’s silencing critics by attacking their livelihoods.