A retired Navy admiral who oversaw the raid that killed Osama bin Laden has resigned from a Defense Department advisory board, after criticizing President Trump's decision to revoke a former CIA director's security clearance.
William McRaven, former head of U.S. Special Operations Command, left the Defense Innovation Board (DIB) on Aug. 20, Lt. Col. Michelle Baldanza, a Pentagon spokeswoman, said.
That was four days after he wrote in the Washington Post that Trump's actions revoking former CIA Director John Brennan's security clearance "embarrassed us in the eyes of our children, humiliated us on the world stage and, worst of all, divided us as a nation."
McRaven's op-ed carried the headline, "Revoke my security clearance, too, Mr. President."
Trump revoked Brennan's clearance last month, saying he felt he had to do something about the "rigged" Russian election interference probe.
The DIB, on which McRaven served, was created during the Obama administration by then-Defense Secretary Ash Carter. Its members include technology executives and others who are mostly from outside the military, such as Alphabet CEO Eric Schmidt, author and physicist Neil DeGrasse Tyson and journalist Walter Isaacson.
Political donations by the panel's members lean overwhelmingly liberal, with some $2.4 million contributed to Democrats and political action committees that support them, versus about $236,000 for Republican candidates, DefenseNews reported.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
