Pentagon revokes Kendall's clearance over alleged Air Force One disclosure

Frank Kendall, who served as Air Force Secretary under President Biden, woke up Friday to find his security clearance revoked. The Pentagon alleged he had disclosed classified information about Air Force One's capabilities to journalists. Kendall, now a private citizen, immediately pushed back. He told the Associated Press he was bewildered by the accusation, insisting he had always been meticulous about what he said in public and had never, to his knowledge, revealed anything classified. "No one has said anything to me about what I'm asserted to have revealed," he said, "and I can't imagine what it could be."

The revocation came on the heels of reporting last month, including pieces in The New York Times, that examined security vulnerabilities in the new Air Force One—a Boeing 747 donated by Qatar that had been rushed into service. Those articles noted that the aircraft lacked the advanced antimissile defenses of the plane it replaced. The Pentagon's spokesperson, Sean Parnell, did not specify which media outlet Kendall allegedly spoke to, nor did he detail which specific classified details were supposedly disclosed. The accusation was stark: Kendall had forfeited his eligibility to access classified information and was barred from holding any sensitive government position.

The backdrop to this dispute is the complicated recent history of Air Force One itself. The new Qatari plane underwent a $400 million retrofit and upgrade before entering service. President Trump flew it to Turkey last month for the NATO summit. But when tensions with Iran escalated—after the U.S. launched airstrikes and Tehran attacked three Gulf Arab states—the Secret Service made an urgent decision. U.S. officials had detected a credible plot to fire a missile at the presidential aircraft. Rather than risk the new plane, which was still incomplete in its defensive systems, the Secret Service recommended Trump return on the older Air Force One, equipped with secure communications and sophisticated military defenses. Trump denied to reporters that security concerns drove the swap, though he acknowledged being under constant threat and called himself Iran's "number one" target.

The White House later announced that Trump would continue using the older plane while the Qatari aircraft received "additional upgrades and enhancements" over approximately one month in the fall. In the Times article, Kendall had been quoted discussing the timeline, noting that the accelerated schedule would not have allowed for "all the normal Air Force One modifications." He expressed surprise that the plane had been used outside U.S. borders before those modifications were complete. When the Pentagon moved against him Friday, Kendall reiterated his position: he had been comfortable speaking on the record to reporters and on television about the Qatari 747 precisely because he believed he had said nothing classified.

The Air Force has maintained that the rapid conversion was done "without accepting any risk regarding security, safety, or secure communications," yet it has also acknowledged that certain capabilities differ between the two aircraft. The service acknowledged it deliberately excluded several highly complex engineering modifications from the Qatar plane, including widening certain doors and installing multiple stairs built into the hull. These omissions were intentional, not oversights.

The revocation of Kendall's clearance fits a pattern. The Trump administration revoked the security clearances of 37 current and former national security officials last year. More recently, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth stripped clearances from other officials soon after taking office. What remains unclear is whether Kendall will face criminal prosecution. The Pentagon declined to say whether he had been referred for prosecution under the Espionage Act, the statute typically invoked in such cases. Historically, classified disclosure allegations have led to serious consequences: Edward Snowden was charged after revealing surveillance programs; a Massachusetts Air National Guard member received a 15-year sentence in 2024 for leaking classified military documents about Ukraine. Kendall's case now sits in that uncertain space—accused, denied, unspecified—waiting to see whether it becomes a prosecution or remains a revocation.