Day 802: Whistleblower: White House overrode over two dozen security clearance denials

For those working in government that need to access classified information, the security clearance process is traditionally non-partisan. There are background checks, questionnaires, interviews and forms. After they’ve been reviewed by career officials, a clearance — and level — are granted or denied.

However, the Donald Trump White House has overrode the denials for 25 officials, according to a whistleblower inside the White House. The White House ignored national security threats to make sure people like Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump could read classified documents.

A White House staff member has told House investigators that senior officials have overruled concerns raised about 25 individuals whose security clearances were initially denied over a range of disqualifying issues — such as fears about foreign influence and potential conflicts-of-interests — warning of the grave implications to national security, according to a senior Democratic lawmaker.

“According to [whistleblower] Ms. [Tricia] Newbold, these individuals had a wide range of serious disqualifying issues involving foreign influence, conflicts of interest, concerning personal conduct, financial problems, drug use, and criminal conduct,” Democratic committee staff write in the memo.

Newbold detailed how the White House has stopped vitally important aspects of background checks, such as credit history checks. (Problems with debt make someone at an increased risk for exploitation.) In addition, staff have been pulled off of reviewing candidates and there are missing personnel files. The White House jammed many clearances through on an interim basis, even when the individuals were later found to be unsuitable for such access to classified materials.

Since coming forward, Newbold has taken cruel and humiliating backlash from her bosses.

And Newbold contended White House officials retaliated against her because she would not easily greenlight security clearances, alleging they sought to “humiliate her” because of her “rare form of dwarfism” by placing personnel security files she needed out of her reach.

“I would not be doing a service to myself, my country, or my children if I sat back knowing that the issues that we have could impact national security,” Newbold told the committee, according to the memo.

Since they can’t fire her for coming forward, the White House is finding absurd reasons to suspend her.

Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), the top Republican on the House Oversight Committee, claimed that Democrats looking into real national security issues is “a partisan attack on the White House.” A memo Jordan drafted also tried to downplay the inherent risk by arguing that if the overrides happened for “five clearance adjudications” then concerns are “very overblown.”

Yes, the official response from Republicans to the White House’s dangerous game is to claim that five people getting access to the most highly classified intelligence in the U.S. when they shouldn’t is no big deal.

802 days in, 660 to go

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