Biden's former Air Force Secretary is lawyering up and going to war with the Trump administration.
Frank Kendall, who ran the Air Force under President Joe Biden, just had his security clearance ripped away by Secretary of War Pete Hegseth. The reason? Allegations that Kendall spilled classified details to the press about the new Air Force One that Trump scored from Qatar. Now Kendall says he's filing a lawsuit, and he's already hired one of the most well-known national security lawyers in the country to do it, according to reports.
Here's what got Kendall in hot water. Last month, The New York Times quoted him saying the Qatari Boeing 747 that Trump plans to fly on lacks the defensive systems that traditionally protect the commander in chief. Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell announced the clearance revocation on X, calling the protection of classified material a "non-negotiable duty" and declaring that anyone who breaks that trust loses the privilege.
Kendall isn't taking it lying down. He flat out denies leaking anything classified. "As my mother taught me years ago, you stand up to bullies," he told CNN on Monday. His attorney, Mark Zaid, confirmed on X that he's officially representing Kendall, teasing that there's "more to come."
Zaid is no stranger to tangling with this White House. He's a veteran national security lawyer who previously sued the Trump administration after his own clearance got yanked. In a March 2025 executive order, Trump specifically named Zaid among several people whose access was being pulled, claiming it was no longer in the national interest. That same order also targeted former President Biden, members of Biden's family, former Deputy AG Lisa Monaco, and New York AG Letitia James.
This is all part of a much bigger pattern. Back in August 2025, Trump stripped clearances from 37 current and former national security officials, including people tied to the intelligence assessment that Russia meddled in the 2016 election to help his campaign. The administration has made no secret of its mission to purge anyone it considers a "deep state" operator.
Meanwhile, the White House has been fighting tooth and nail against stories questioning the safety of that Qatari jet. The Justice Department even subpoenaed New York Times reporters who wrote about the aircraft's missing defensive capabilities. Those subpoenas got pulled after a federal judge blasted the government's legal approach and raised serious questions about how they obtained the reporters' information.
The Pentagon is keeping tight-lipped about exactly what Kendall supposedly revealed, only saying it involved capabilities connected to one of the most security-sensitive planes on the planet. In July, Kendall told The Wall Street Journal that properly outfitting a 747 with presidential-level defensive systems would take roughly three to four years.
Before serving under Biden, Kendall held multiple senior defense roles, including undersecretary of defense for acquisition and logistics during the Obama years. The man has decades of Pentagon experience, which makes this showdown all the more explosive. Stay tuned, because this legal battle is just getting started.
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