‘Foreign Influence, Conflicts of Interest, Concerning Personal Conduct, Financial Problems, Drug Use, and Criminal Conduct’
Senior aides within the Trump administration granted security clearances to more than two dozen White House officials – including two current senior White House officials – and others, whose applications had been denied or rejected by career civil service officials charged with reviewing and recommending and approval or denial.
Applications of at least 25 people were denied for a wide variety of reasosn, including, “foreign influence, conflicts of interest, concerning personal conduct, financial problems, drug use, and criminal conduct,” a whistle-blower, Tricia Newbold, told the House Oversight and Reform Committee, The New York Times reports.
Newbold, who has worked in the White House for 18 years, serves as a manager in the White House’s Personnel Security Office. Her claims were made public by the Committee in a report after she testified last month.
“The denials by the career employees were overturned, she said, by more-senior officials who did not follow the procedures designed to mitigate security risks.”
House Oversight and Reform Committee Chairman Elijah Cummings is planning to subpoena the White House Counsel, Pat Cipollone, on Tuesday.
“The committee has given the White House every possible opportunity to cooperate with this investigation, but you have declined,” Chairman Cummings wrote to Cipollone. “Your actions are now preventing the committee from obtaining the information it needs to fulfill its constitutional responsibilities.”
In a statement on his government website Chairman Cummings praised Newbold for coming forward to share the “grave concerns about the dysfunction” she has observed in the Trump White House.