Maria Butina, the alleged Russian agent who stands accused of developing a covert influence operation in the United States, boasted of connections to high-ranking Kremlin officials and even shopped access to Russian President Vladimir Putin, ABC News reports.

“The alleged Russian spy Maria Butina said she planned to use members of Donald Trump’s entourage to shape his views on Russia shortly before meeting one of Trump’s sons during the 2016 election campaign,” the Guardian reports.

“But the prosecutors also conceded in a filing to court late on Friday that they may have wrongly accused Butina of offering sex in return for a job, after her attorneys protested against the government’s portrayal of her as a Red Sparrow seductress.”

Adam Entous: “As Trump stepped up his public and private attacks on Obama, some of the new president’s advisers thought that he should take the extraordinary step of denying Obama himself access to intelligence briefings that were made available to all of his living predecessors. Trump was told about the importance of keeping former Presidents, who frequently met with foreign leaders, informed.”

“In the end, Trump decided not to exclude Obama at the urging of H.R. McMaster.”

Former CIA Director Michael Hayden told CNN that he thinks the relationship between the national security community and President Trump is on the edge of shattering.

Said Hayden: “It’s dangerously close to being permanently broken, it is badly injured right now.”

When asked if Hayden would be proud to have his security clearance revoked, he replied that he would: “And frankly, if his not revoking my clearance gave the impression that I somehow moved my commentary to a direction more acceptable to the White House, I would find that very disappointing and frankly unacceptable.”

Los Angeles Times: “The concept had been pushed unsuccessfully since 2016 by a small group of current and former government officials, some with deep financial ties to the aerospace industry, who see creation of the sixth military service as a surefire way to hike Pentagon spending on satellite and other space systems.”

“A few days after the San Diego speech, Trump took a phone call at his Mar-a-Lago Club in Florida from Rep. Mike Rogers (R-AL), an Alabama Republican who is chairman of the House Armed Services subcommittee on strategic forces. He had been promoting the space force to Trump and his advisors for months.”

Said Trump: “I’m all in. We are going to have a space force.”

“President Trump is increasingly venting frustration to his national security team about the U.S. strategy in Afghanistan and showing renewed interest in a proposal by Blackwater founder Erik Prince to privatize the war, ” NBC News reports.

“Prince’s idea, which first surfaced last year during the president’s Afghanistan strategy review, envisions replacing troops with private military contractors who would work for a special U.S. envoy for the war who would report directly to the president.”

“Prince, a staunch Trump supporter whose sister is Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, argues that after 17 years of war in Afghanistan, it’s time for the U.S. to try something new.”

Politico: “A dozen former top intelligence officials, representing previous Republican and Democratic administrations, issued a letter late Thursday supporting former CIA Director John Brennan and lambasting President Donald Trump’s move to revoke his security clearance.”

“The rare statement from the former officials — including former CIA directors who served under Presidents Ronald Reagan, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton — comes one day after Trump pulled Brennan’s clearance and said he would evaluate clearances for other former intelligence officials, including two who signed on to the pro-Brennan statement.”

New York Times: “Law enforcement officials, lawmakers and members of the intelligence community expressed worry that the president’s act of retaliation will have a potentially chilling effect on the United States’ law enforcement and intelligence officers.”

William McRaven, who oversaw the 2011 Navy SEAL raid in Pakistan that killed Osama bin Laden, writes an open letter to President Trump in the Washington Post:

Former CIA director John Brennan, whose security clearance you revoked on Wednesday, is one of the finest public servants I have ever known. Few Americans have done more to protect this country than John. He is a man of unparalleled integrity, whose honesty and character have never been in question, except by those who don’t know him.

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.

“This action is part of a broader effort by Mr. Trump to suppress freedom of speech and punish critics. It should gravely worry all Americans, including intelligence professionals, about the cost of speaking out. My principles are worth far more than clearances. I will not relent.”

— Former CIA Director John Brennan, responding on Twitter to President Trump revoking his security clearance.

“In a remarkable attack on a political opponent, President Trump revoked the security clearance of John Brennan, the former C.I.A. director under President Obama, citing what he called Mr. Brennan’s “erratic” behavior, the New York Times reports.

“The White House had threatened last month to strip Mr. Brennan and other Obama administration officials — including Susan Rice, the former national security adviser; and James Clapper, the former director of national intelligence — of their security clearances. At the time, Ms. Sanders said that Mr. Trump was considering doing it because ‘they politicized, and in some cases monetized, their public service and security clearances.'”

Brennan appeared last night on MSNBC, where he called Trump “dangerous to our nation.”