White House security clearances under scrutiny

WASHINGTON—A White House official said the Trump administration granted dozens of security clearances despite concerns about the individuals’ pasts. House Oversight and Reform Committee Chairman Elijah Cummings, D-Md., released a memo and letter Monday with testimony from Tricia Newbold, who has worked for the government for 18 years. She told the committee in March that at least 25 Trump administration officials received clearances after being initially rejected due to concerns ranging from foreign influence and conflicts of interest to drug use and criminal conduct. Only two of the 25 still work for the administration.

Newbold noted that the president can override security clearance rejections but told the committee she was concerned that “many security clearance denials were routinely overruled without following the proper protocols to document why senior officials disagreed with assessments.” She said she believed the White House retaliated against her for raising her concerns by suspending her for 14 days without pay over a new policy requiring that documents be scanned as separate, rather than single, PDF files. When she returned to work, she said the office had restructured and removed her from the security clearance process.

The Oversight Committee is already investigating how President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, former national security adviser Michael Flynn, and former White House aide Rob Porter received clearances. Cummings announced he will subpoena Newbold’s former boss, White House personnel security director Carl Kline, to testify before the committee.

In a interview Monday on Fox News, Kushner denied his security clearance posed a risk: “I can’t comment for the White House’s process, but what I can say is that over the last few years that I’ve been here, I’ve been accused of all different types of things, and all of those things have turned out to be false.”

Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio, the committee’s top Republican, called Cummings’ probe a “partisan attack” and an “excuse to go fishing” through personnel files.