Trump team overruled 25 clearance denials: official

By Michael Hernandez

WASHINGTON (AA) - An 18-year career U.S. official has told Congress dozens of Trump administration officials have been granted security clearances despite "a wide range of serious disqualifying issues," according to a memo released Monday by the House oversight committee.

Tricia Newbold, a whistleblower who works in the White House office responsible for reviewing clearances, told the committee during a day-long interview last week that some clearance applications “were not always adjudicated in the best interest of national security,” citing in particular 25 denials that she and other career officials issued which were later overturned by senior aides to U.S. President Donald Trump.

Among those whose clearances were denied by the career officials were "two current senior White House officials, as well as contractors and individuals throughout different components of the Executive Office of the President," Newbold said, according to a 10-page memo Committee Chairman Elijah Cummings sent to the panel's members.

Among the disqualifying issues Newbold identified were foreign influence, conflicts of interest, concerning personal conduct, financial problems, drug use and criminal conduct, according to the document.

The revelations come a month after the New York Times reported that Trump ordered his son-in-law and special advisor Jared Kushner be given a security clearance despite objections from national security officials.

Cummings sent a letter to White House Counsel Pat Cipollone notifying him the committee would begin issuing subpoenas to current and former White House officials over Newbold's disclosures beginning Tuesday, alleging the White House has been obstructing his ongoing investigation and refusing to comply voluntarily.

That initial subpoena will be for Carl Kline, who served as the personnel security director for the first two years of the Trump administration and who now works at the Pentagon.

"I hope the White House will begin cooperating voluntarily with these requests and that additional subpoenas will not be necessary," Cummings wrote to Cipollone.