House Democrats to probe security clearances

WASHINGTON — A powerful House committee now led by Democrats is opening an investigation into how security clearances have been handled in President Donald Trump’s White House and 2016 presidential transition.

The inquiry by the House Oversight and Reform Committee, announced Wednesday, takes direct aim at some of those closest to the president over the past two years, including former national security adviser Michael Flynn, Trump son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner and former White House aide Rob Porter.

The review also sets up one of the first potential fights between a Democrat-led House committee and a White House bracing for a number of investigations in the wake of last year’s midterm elections that eroded GOP control in Washington.

Rep. Elijah Cummings of Maryland, the committee chairman, said in a letter to the White House that he was undertaking the investigation in response to “grave breaches of national security at the highest level of the Trump administration” involving Flynn and others. Cummings said his committee is looking to scrutinize how the White House and transition team safeguarded classified information and “evaluate the extent to which the nation’s most highly guarded secrets were provided to officials who should not have had access to them.”

The White House didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.