April 1: On This Day In 2019
The United States has a rigorous process for vetting who has the right to view top-secret documents. Background checks, as conducted by the national intelligence and secret service teams, are extensive and, frankly, invasive. But, if you’re going to be trusted with the country’s most sensitive info, you’d better not have suspicious red-flags. Right?
When Trump took office, he submitted the names of his staffers for evaluation…and 25 of them came back as REJECTED for clearance. The evaluations team found too many holes in their backgrounds.
So, because all his life he has blown off the rules, Donald Trump overruled those denials and insisted that they get clearance anyway. And here's what happened:
His son-in-law Jared Kushner was one of the 25. Kushner’s clearance was rejected due to concerns about “foreign influence, outside activities, and personal conduct.”
According to The New York Times, Trump ordered chief of staff John Kelly to ignore the rejections and approve Kushner’s clearance anyway. (Similar story for the other 24, too). This was against the advice of intelligence officials and of the White House’s own counsel.
The approvals panicked longtime White House staffers, who worried about the national security implications. OTDI 2019, the House Oversight Committee reported that security specialist Tricia Newbold testified that Trump’s overturned rejections came “without proper analysis, documentation, or a full understanding and acceptance of the risks.”
Massive security breaches from the Trump Family soon followed.
Fears about Kushner’s trustworthiness, of course, turned out to be stunningly accurate. His family firm later accepted several billion dollars from foreign governments, and U.S. foreign policy seemed to shift shortly after some of that cash was received. Check out March 18 OTDI for details.
Donald Trump himself, of course, proved to be a huge security risk to the United States. Multiple times over his four years—and even beyond—he simply gave away highly-classified secrets to our worst enemies…sometimes with terrible consequences.
Just a few of these are covered by the OTDIs on February 2, May 10, June 29, August 30, September 9, and December 30.
Dive deeper
The NYT has more on Trump’s ordering Kelly to approve Kusher’s security clearance:
The Hill covered the security clearance concerns surrounding Trump’s son-in-law
The House's interview with the whistleblower, Newbold, is here
Summary: Trump awards security clearance to unqualified staffers. Trump Family gives away national secrets.