White House whistleblower says security refusals vetoed by Trump
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A White House whistleblower has said the Trump administration overruled security experts to give questionable security clearances to more than two dozen people, including the president鈥檚 daughter Ivanka and son-in-law Jared Kushner.
Tricia Newbold, a White House security adviser, told Democrats in Congress that clearances were initially denied to dozens of administration officials because of concerns over possible foreign influence, conflicts of interests, questionable or criminal conduct, financial problems or drug abuse.
She said President Donald Trump鈥檚 former White House personnel security director, Carl Kline, personally overruled the career officials鈥 judgments in the cases of two senior officials. Newbold鈥檚 allegations were in a letter to the White House on Monday and released by Elijah Cummings, chairman of the House of Representatives Oversight Committee.
鈥淚 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,鈥 his letter quoted Newbold as telling his committee. 鈥淚 feel that right now this is my last hope to really bring the integrity back into our office.鈥
Cummings said he plans to subpoena Kline and warned that more subpoenas would be issued if the White House does not provide requested documents. In his letter to the White House, Cummings referred to three unnamed 鈥渟enior White House officials鈥 whose security clearance cases are addressed in some detail by Newbold.
Two sources familiar with the information obtained by the Oversight Committee said two of those three senior officials are Ivanka Trump and Kushner, her husband. Asked about the whistleblower鈥檚 assertions, Kushner said he had complied with various investigations.
鈥淚 disclosed all of my holdings for the Office of Government Ethics, and what I did with them is they told me what to divest, what to keep, what rules to follow. We followed all that,鈥 Kushner said.
The White House did not respond to a request comment.
Jim Jordan, the top Republican on the House committee, issued a statement calling the letter a 鈥減artisan attack鈥 that was 鈥渁n excuse to go fishing through the personal files of dedicated public servants.鈥
Cummings said Newbold, a manager in the White House personnel security office, said she was targeted for retaliation after declining to approve applications based on national security protocols.
Separately, the House Judiciary Committee said on Monday that it will this week issue subpoenas to obtain Special Counsel Robert Muller鈥檚 full report on Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election.
Attorney General William Barr issued a summary of Mueller鈥檚 findings to Congress on March 24, saying the special counsel did not establish that members of the Trump campaign conspired with Russia.
Mueller left unresolved the question of whether Trump obstructed justice during the probe, and Barr concluded the evidence was insufficient to charge the president.
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