Whistleblower: Trump Team Overruled 25 Security Clearance Denials

A White House whistle-blower has said the Trump administration overruled security experts to give questionable security clearances to more than two dozen people, including the president’s daughter Ivanka and son-in-law Jared Kushner.

Tricia Newbold, an 18-year government employee who oversaw the issuance of clearances for some senior White House aides, said she compiled a list of at least 25 officials who were initially denied security clearances last year due to “disqualifying issues” in their backgrounds, but then had those denials overruled by senior administration officials.

The allegations were detailed in a letter and memo released Monday by Congressman Elijah Cummings, chairman of the House Oversight and Reform Committee.

The documents, which are based on Newbold’s March 23 private committee interview, don’t identify the officials on the list but say they include “two current senior White House officials, as well as contractors and individuals” in different parts of the Executive Office of the President.

The release of the documents sets the stage for another fight between the White House and the Democratic-controlled House, and immediately drew criticism from House Republicans who called the allegations overblown and “cherry-picked”.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Monday.

Jim Jordan, the committee’s ranking Republican, said in a statement that Cummings’d probe is a “partisan attack”.