House Oversight Committee Chairman Elijah Cummings (D-MD) is launching an investigation into how several White House staffers, including Jared Kushner, received security clearance in spite of concerns they were unqualified to access classified information.
"The Committee on Oversight and Reform is launching an in-depth investigation of the security clearance process at the White House and Transition Team in response to grave breaches of national security at the highest levels of the Trump administration," Rep. Elijah E. Cummings, the chairman of the Committee on Oversight and Reform, said in a letter to the White House obtained by NBC News.
From the letter:
“The goals of this investigation are to determine why the White House and Transition Team appear to have disregarded established procedures for safeguarding classified information, evaluate the extent to which the nation’s most highly guarded secrets were provided to officials who should not have had access to them, and develop reforms to remedy the flaws in current White House systems and practices. The investigation also will seek to determine why the White House is currently defying federal law by failing to provide to Congress information about its security clearance process required by the SECRET Act."
Last February, NBC News reported that more than 130 political appointees working in the Executive Office of the President did not have permanent security clearances as of November 2017, including the president's daughter Ivanka; Kushner, her husband; and the president's top legal counsel. Kushner has since obtained a clearance, according to his lawyer, despite reports that he has been targeted for manipulation by foreign governments.
CNN:
... Cummings requested a range of documents related to the security clearance process, writing that the investigation was in response to "grave breaches of national security at the highest levels of the Trump Administration, including by former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn and others."
(...)
According to a statement released along with the letter, the committee is seeking information about a litany of former and current administration officials, including national security adviser John Bolton, senior adviser to the President Jared Kushner, former White House aide Rob Porter and former national security adviser K.T. McFarland.
In addition to those individuals, the committee is asking for information related to then-White House chief of staff John Kelly's 2018 review of security clearance processes, which according to the statement found that dozens of individuals who began working at the White House in January 2017 with interim security clearances were still doing so well into Trump's first year in office.
In February 2018, Kelly ordered an overhaul of the security clearance process for current and incoming top administration officials. Kelly's memo came just over a week after Porter resigned following allegations of domestic abuse against him became public. Porter's ex-wives had leveled the accusations against Porter in interviews with FBI officials in early 2017, and FBI Director Chris Wray said the FBI provided the White House with updates on the investigation in March, July and November 2017 before closing the investigation in January.
Cummings' letter seeks information about reports of security clearance issues involving multiple current and former officials, including:
• Senior adviser to the president Jared Kushner
• National security adviser John Bolton
• Former national security adviser Michael Flynn
• Flynn's son, Michael Flynn Jr.
• Former deputy national security adviser K.T. McFarland
• Former White House staff secretary Robert Porter
• Former National Security Council senior director Robin Townley
• Trump's former personal assistant, John McEntee
• Former deputy assistant to the president Sebastian Gorka
Cummings said he also sent a letter to the National Rifle Association about Bolton, seeking information about his contacts with Maria Butina, an NRA member who has been charged as an unregistered agent of Russia.
Bolton made a promotional video for Butina's The Right to Bear Arms group in 2013. The video, available on YouTube as recently as March 2018, has been removed.
From the press release:
Cummings also asked for documents regarding why the White House is currently violating the SECRET Act—a law passed by both houses of Congress with bipartisan support and signed by President Trump on May 22, 2018—which required the White House to submit a report to Congress by August 2018 on its procedures for adjudicating security clearances.
Cummings sent similar letters today to Vice President Mike Pence in his capacity as Chair of the Transition Team, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Department of State, and the National Rifle Association.
Rep. Cummings' Letter to the White House Counsel
House Democrats probe how Jared Kushner got security clearance (NBC News)
House Oversight Committee announces investigation into White House security clearances (CNN)
House Democrats launch investigation into White House security clearances (ABC News)
Oversight Committee Launches Investigation of Security Clearance Problems at White House (press release)