SECURITY CLEARANCE AN ISSUE IN S.C. RACE
Republican facing questions over her time at Pentagon
After losing a high-profile bid for a South Carolina congressional seat in 2018, Republican Katie Arrington took a job at the Defense Department, where she focused on securing military supply chains, ensuring that thousands of companies that contract with the federal government were implementing cybersecurity protocols.
Arrington’s civil servant work as chief information officer for the Acquisition and Sustainment Office was in line with what she characterizes as her longtime passion for cybersecurity and defense. But as she seeks to revive her political career, Arrington’s time at the Pentagon is becoming a central issue in her campaign.
Freshman GOP Rep. Nancy Mace, whom Arrington hopes to defeat in South Carolina’s June 14 primary, is calling on Arrington to take a lie detector test about why she lost access to classified information. A Macefunded, anti-Arrington website, meanwhile, has sections labeled “Leaks Classified Information” and “Busted: Loses Her Security Clearance.”
The dispute is likely to surface at a debate between the two today.
The episode reflects the
intensity of one of the most closely watched GOP congressional primaries this year. Former President Donald Trump, who endorsed Mace in 2020, has backed Arrington’s bid to unseat her, infuriated by the incumbent’s criticism of him, including for his role in inciting the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.
Mace’s campaign has argued that Arrington’s clearance status is fair game for someone seeking to represent a congressional district with a heavy military population. But in an interview, Arrington insisted Mace was “lying” about the issue. She’s stepping up an effort to rebut the attacks, including providing a sworn affidavit to The Associated Press from an unnamed intelligence officer who worked with her and said he never worried about her handling of classified information.
Arrington’s security
clearance was suspended and she was placed on leave from the Pentagon in May 2021 when officials accused her of an improper disclosure of classified information. Arrington says the incident centered on her communication with a contractor whose name had been revealed in a top-secret briefing she received — an “unmasking” she said had already happened by the time the information came into her hands.
In the interview, she said that during her daily briefing, an intelligence officer relayed to her information related to a possible problem with the contractor. According to Arrington, both she and the officer were surprised the name of the contractor was included in the information but accepted that a higher-up had made that determination.
Being told the company had already been notified of the issue, Arrington said she followed protocol, by first briefing a supervisor before calling the company to see if she could be of assistance — a call that Arrington said triggered the investigation that resulted in her suspension.
The intelligence officer who passed on the information has come forth to support Arrington. In an April 27 affidavit shared with the AP, the officer — who is not being identified due to his continued employment as an intelligence briefer — wrote that he never had concerns about Arrington’s access to classified information.
“I never saw her mishandle any classified information or documents from that program,” the briefer wrote in a sworn statement. “I am at a complete loss based on my specific knowledge of the matter as to what security infraction was allegedly committed.”
The probe into Arrington’s clearance dragged on throughout 2021, with Arrington suing the Pentagon in October, accusing officials of failing to take “any significant substantive steps to move their investigation forward.“The claim was settled in January, with the Pentagon paying her attorney fees but not providing “any useful meaningful facts to allow Arrington to actually substantively respond to the allegations,” according to Arrington’s subsequent FOIA lawsuit, filed in April.