It’s ONLY *surprising* to the D.C./media bubble.
Those living in the real world understand when one is no longer working for X, they remove the ACCESS.
Govt won’t even follow the same rules/laws/regs is places on BIZ (doc.\e-mail retention, audits, etc. They’d be on any biz like flies on s*...Govt does the same and it’s “Oops”).
That's pretty much it right there. What is curtailed is Brennan's ability to leak, not to speak. That's a lot bigger deal to media who are accustomed to that source of illicit information than it is to anyone else.
What I find astonishing is the sheer brazenness of it all. Apparently the open abuse of a public trust for one's personal and/or political gain has become so prevalent that they don't even try to hide it anymore. If Trump were remotely what these malcontents say he is, they'd be facing a Soviet-style retirement party in the Lubyanka basement.