Prez waves white flag on clearances

It took The Donald less than a day to cave.

The White House abruptly agreed to allow an official to testify at a Democratic-run congressional hearing into the granting of security clearances to top officials including wunderkind Jared Kushner.

Just a day after President Trump vowed an all-out fight with Democrats over their plans to investigate everything from his taxes to obstruction, the administration reversed course and gave its blessing to ex-personnel director Carl Kline to appear at a hearing on the controversial clearances.

A White House lawyer suggested it still wanted lawyers to attend the hearing with Kline. And a letter to Republicans said he planned to discuss only “policies and practices” of the office.

But Democrats are unlikely to back down in their demand that he answer specific questions about how he allowed Trump to overrule career officials and grant clearances to his son-in-law (inset) and other officials deemed major security risks because of their extensive foreign business contacts and other issues.

Trump has claimed he didn’t overrule anyone, but now claims that as president he can give anyone a clearance if he wants to. That’s legally true, but Democrats want to know what reasons, if any, were given for the highly unusual moves — and why Trump and others lied about them.

The GOP about-face came in a letter from White House counsel Pat Cipollone to Rep. Jim Jordan, the top Republican on the Oversight Committee holding the hearing. There was no immediate comment from Rep. Elijah Cummings, the panel’s Democratic chairman.

The olive branch could signal that Trump’s plan to aggressively fight Democratic investigations is crumbling before it even starts.

Trump had vowed to defy all Democratic demands for documents and testimony from past and present officials, even in cases where there is no legal justification for not cooperating.