The executive order targets the clearances of 50 people in all, including the 49 surviving signatories of the letter.

President Donald Trump signed an executive order Monday revoking the security clearance of 51 former intelligence officials who signed a 2020 letter arguing that emails from a laptop belonging to Hunter Biden carried “all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation” and that of his former national security adviser John Bolton.

The action is an early indication of Trump's determination to exact retribution on perceived adversaries and is the latest point of tension between Trump and an intelligence community of which he has been openly disdainful.

Trump took the action after the former officials said in 2020 that leaks from Hunter Biden laptop could be "a Russian information operation."

President Donald Trump revoked the security clearances of 50 former US intelligence officials who had cast doubt on conservative attacks on former President Joe Biden’s son, delivering on a campaign promise to exact retribution against what he sees as a “deep state” conspiracy against him.