national security officials. all of whom have been critical at times of his administration. and official with knowledge of the matter tells me that the nation's senior most intelligence official dan coats was not consulted and the cia, quote, caught off guard by the move which is an unprecedented use of presidential authority to punish his political rivals. press secretary sarah sanders today could not explain why the president never issued a similar statement revoking the clearance of his own former national security adviser flynn who admitted to lying to the fbi. i'll speak with congressman don beyer. let's go straight to the breaking news and cnn white house correspondent kaitlan collins. this is truly a bombshell. it is unprecedented. take us through how this happened. >> reporter: well, jim, it certainly is a bombshell and there's no ignoring that the white house made this announcement on a day where they're dealing with the fallout