Whistleblower reveals ‘grave breaches’ in White House security clearances

WASHINGTON: Some 25 White House officials including top advisors of President Donald Trump were given security clearances despite staff recommendations against it, a whistleblower has told Congress.

House Oversight Committee Chairman Elijah Cummings said in a letter that White House security official Tricia Newbold detailed to his panel “grave breaches of national security at the highest levels of the Trump Administration.”

None of the 25 were named, but in his letter, addressed to White House counsel Pat Cipollone, Cummings requested information relating to clearances for National Security Advisor John Bolton, former national security advisor Michael Flynn, Trump’s daughter Ivanka Trump and son-in-law Jared Kushner, and several other top security officials.

He also said he would subpoena Carl Kline, Newbold’s former superior at the White House Personnel Security Office, to testify to the committee on the clearances, along with other officials.

Newbold told the committee that the Personnel Security Office recommended against security clearances – which allow access to top secret materials – for the 25, Cummings said.

Two of them were top-level officials in national security.

Newbold told the committee that the recommendations for denial were for serious questions involving foreign influence, conflicts of interest, personal conduct issues, financial problems, drug use, and criminal acts.

But the 18-year veteran of the White House said they were pressured to change their recommendations and overruled by Kline and higher-ups.

And when she pressed the issues, Kline and others retaliated against her, she said, including suspending her without pay for two weeks in February.

“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.

Questions about security clearances have been raised ever since Trump took office on January 20, 2017. — AFP