House Oversight Committee Chairman Elijah Cummings (D-MD), who has been asking the White House for information about its security clearance process and getting no response, now says White House counsel Pat Cipollone must comply by March 4 or expect a subpoena.
CNN:
"I am now writing a final time to request your voluntary cooperation with this investigation," Cummings said. "I ask that you begin producing all responsive documents immediately, and I request that you begin scheduling transcribed interviews with each witness identified by the Committee."
Cummings' letter comes after The New York Times reported Thursday that the President personally intervened to secure his son-in-law Jared Kushner a security clearance, despite concerns from career officials. The President had previously denied he personally intervened.
"If true, these new reports raise grave questions about what derogatory information career officials obtained about Mr. Kushner to recommend denying him access to our nation's most sensitive secrets, why President Trump concealed his role in overruling that recommendation, why General Kelly and Mr. McGahn both felt compelled to document these actions, and why your office is continuing to withhold key documents and witnesses from this Committee," Cummings wrote on Friday.
The White House is arguing Congress does not have "the authority to review individual security clearance decisions."
Cipollone writes, "the President, Not Congress, Has the Power to Control National Security Information." In another letter, he urges Cummings to make requests about security clearance information "narrowly focused" and "limited."
In Cipollone's letter, he also asks Cummings not to go around the White House counsel's office to try to obtain information directly from White House staffers. He specifically cites efforts to talk to Kelly.
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On Thursday after the Times story broke, Cummings threatened to issue a subpoena for the information if the White House doesn't comply with the request.
"To date, the White House has not produced a single document or scheduled a single interview," Cummings said in a statement. "The Committee expects full compliance with its requests as soon as possible, or it may become necessary to consider alternative means to compel compliance."
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Cummings announced on January 23 that he was investigating the security clearance process at the White House and requested information about the background investigations and security clearances of national security adviser John Bolton, former White House staff secretary Rob Porter, former national security adviser Michael Flynn, his son Michael Flynn Jr., former deputy assistant to the President Sebastian Gorka, Kushner, former deputy national security adviser K.T. McFarland and former senior director for Africa Robin Townley.
Cummings also requested information on the formal protocol of issuing security clearances at the White House and all the documents related to a February 2018 memo Kelly, then-the White House chief of staff, issued on how to improve the process.
House Oversight Committee issues ultimatum to White House over security clearance information (CNN)