Former Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall said Monday he plans to take the Trump administration to court over its decision to revoke his security clearance, a move officials tied to allegations that he revealed sensitive details about a Qatar-provided aircraft now being used as Air Force One.
Kendall, a West Point graduate who led the Air Force under President Joe Biden, told CNN that he will sue to have the clearance restored. He rejected the claim that he disclosed classified information and framed the revocation as part of a broader pattern of retaliation against Trump critics. “As my mother taught me years ago, you stand up to bullies,” Kendall said.
Mark Zaid, a well-known national security lawyer who has also sued the Trump administration after losing his own clearance, confirmed on X that Kendall has retained him. “More to come,” Zaid wrote.
Zaid’s legal practice focuses heavily on representing military personnel, government employees and other clients seeking to protect security clearances during investigations or administrative disputes.
He became one of the figures targeted last year as the Trump administration moved to strip clearances from people it viewed as adversaries. In a March 2025 executive order, Trump listed Zaid among 14 others, along with former President Joe Biden and members of Biden’s family, former Biden-era Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco, and New York Attorney General Letitia James. The order said their continued access to classified information was “no longer in the national interest.”
The campaign widened in August 2025, when Trump revoked the security clearances of 37 additional current and former national security officials. Some of those officials had worked on issues that have long drawn Trump’s anger, including the intelligence community’s assessment that Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election to help his campaign.
The dispute over Kendall’s clearance comes as Trump has sought to tamp down reporting about problems with the aircraft Qatar gave him last year, which he intends to use as Air Force One for the rest of his term. Last month, the Justice Department subpoenaed New York Times reporters who had covered security concerns surrounding the plane, including its lack of the advanced anti-missile systems found on the previous aircraft. After a federal judge criticized the government’s legal work as sloppy, the administration reluctantly withdrew the subpoenas.
