Kelly overhauls White House procedures for security clearance

More than a week after spousal abuse allegations against a senior aide to President Donald Trump sparked a controversy over White House security clearances, chief of staff John Kelly ordered several changes to the process, including limiting access to certain classified information for people with temporary clearances.

Per the memo — sent Friday to White House counsel Don McGahn, national security adviser H.R. McMaster and deputy chief of staff Joseph Hagin — White House employees with interim clearances would only be allowed to review certain information if they received approval from the chief of staff ’s office. And even in that case, it would only be granted “in the most compelling of circumstances.”

Kelly also ordered that any temporary clearances with access to certain levels of classified information would be revoked if the background investigations into the individuals with the clearances had been pending since June. Those clearances will be revoked Feb. 23.

Additionally, future interim clearances would last for 180 days, with an option of extending them for an additional 90 days — but only if “no significant derogatory information” had been discovered by the FBI.

Kelly said he wanted the derogatory information discovered in the FBI’s background investigations to be reported within 48 hours of its discovery.

The changes come after the security clearance process was called into question during the fallout over spousal abuse allegations against Rob Porter, who resigned as White House staff secretary last week, after reports that publicized his exwives’ accusations.

Porter had direct access to Trump and likely handled documents with classified information.