BULLDOG
Diamond Member
- Jun 3, 2014
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You mean they got their Security Clearances the same way Obama and the Clintons got theirs?So reportedly, these individuals couldn't qualify for a top secret clearance due to disqualifiers in their background, yet they were granted the clearances anyway.
By the way, the whistleblower in this case is only 18 years old and they showed her home on the evening news. I hope they haven't compromised her safety even more than her merely speaking out about government misconduct.
Politics
Whistleblower Says White House Overturned 25 Denied Security Clearances
White House adviser Jared Kushner (left) is among those whose security clearances are being questioned by Democrats.
Susan Walsh/AP
Updated at 6:45 p.m. ET
An 18-year White House employee told congressional investigators that she and other career staffers denied security clearances for 25 Trump administration officials, including three "very senior" officials, only to see most of those recommendations overturned.
The employee, Tricia Newbold, was interviewed by staff of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform. Democrats on the panel released a summary of her interview, conducted over the weekend, raising new questions about how and why the White House issued security clearances to, among others, Jared Kushner, the president's son-in-law.
Republicans argued in response that Democrats on the committee released "cherry-picked excerpts" of the interview with Newbold to "manufacture a misleading narrative that the Trump White House is reckless with our national security."
According to Democrats, Newbold said that security clearance applications "were not always adjudicated in the best interest of national security" and that staff denials were frequently overturned by senior officials to grant the employees access to classified information.
Newbold said that in the case of one official, named only as Senior White House Official 1, staff denied the security clearance request after a background investigation revealed "significant disqualifying factors, including foreign influence, outside activities ... and personal conduct."
But Newbold said the denial was overturned by the director of the White House Personnel Security Office, Carl Kline. Staff also recommended denying a clearance to a second "very senior" official based on "foreign influence and outside activities," but Newbold said Kline told her "do not touch" the case. That clearance was also granted.
Newbold also said Kline told her to change the recommendation against a third senior official, but she refused. That denial was ultimately upheld, the committee says, and the individual is no longer at the White House.
Newbold said that in addition to the two current senior officials, security clearances were also granted to contractors and other individuals in the executive office of the president, despite their having "a wide range of serious disqualifying issues involving foreign influence, conflicts of interest, concerning personal conduct, financial problems, drug use, and criminal conduct."
She said that when she raised concerns to her superiors, they ignored those concerns. She said she is coming forward because she believes "that right now this is my last hope to really bring the integrity back into our office."
Newbold also told the oversight committee staff that the White House security office stopped conducting credit checks on applicants to work in the White House during their initial suitability reviews. This, she said, prevents the White House from being able to assess whether applicants "could be susceptible to blackmail, depending on their debts."
Whistleblower Says White House Overturned 25 Denied Security Clearances
No.
