Trump Is Playing Russian Roulette With America's National Security
Fresh details have emerged about Trump’s complete disregard for the country’s security — a breach so potentially serious that would sink any other President in history.
by Ben Cohen
Another day, another scandal in Donald Trump’s America. This time, fresh details have emerged about Trump’s complete disregard for the country’s security — a breach so potentially serious that would sink any other President in history. Reported The New York Times today:
A whistle-blower working inside the White House has told a House committee that senior Trump administration officials granted security clearances to at least 25 individuals whose applications had been denied by career employees, the committee’s Democratic staff said Monday.
The whistle-blower, Tricia Newbold, a manager in the White House’s Personnel Security Office, told the House Oversight and Reform Committee in a private interview last month that the 25 individuals included two current senior White House officials, in addition to contractors and other employees working for the office of the president, the staff said in a memo it released publicly.
In the 10-page memo, the staff stated that, “According to Ms. Newbold, these individuals had a wide range of serious disqualifying issues involving foreign influence, conflicts of interest, concerning personal conduct, financial problems, drug use, and criminal conduct.”
Newbold stated that the denials she issued were overturned by director of the White House Personnel Security Office, Carl Kline. Kline also overruled a decision by security officials who were concerned about granting president Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner a clearance. The Times reported:
Newbold told the committee that a specialist reviewing the clearance application wrote a 14-page memo detailing disqualifying concerns, including possible foreign influence. She said that Mr. Kline instructed her “do not touch” the case, and soon granted the official clearance.
It is worth noting that Newbold is the highest-ranking White House official to speak out about the issue, and her testimony has created a firestorm on Capitol Hill as lawmakers demand an investigation into the matter. Reported Politico:
She told the committee that coming to Congress was her “last hope” to bring “integrity” back to her office, noting that her internal complaints were ignored even as she amassed a list of more than two dozen officials whose clearances were approved despite an initial denial.
“I do not see a way forward positively in our office without coming to an external entity, and that’s because I have raised my concerns throughout the [Executive Office of the President] to career staffers as well as political staffers,” she said, according to a memo prepared for members of the committee. “And I want it known that this is a systematic, it’s an office issue, and we’re not a political office, but these decisions were being continuously overrode.”
NPR’s Tim Mak has also reported that Newbold was suspended without pay for two weeks for not following a new policy to “scan documents in separate pdf files instead of a single pdf file”:
Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md. is planning to subpoena Kline to force him to testify before the committee, but Republicans have responded by claiming it is merely an “excuse to go fishing through the personal files of dedicated public servants.”
The Trump White House has yet to officially respond to the charges.
A serious threat to national security
It is important to recognize just how serious this is, and how reckless the Trump administration has been when it comes to safeguarding the nation’s security. There is little reason to doubt Newbold’s charges, and it is interesting (but not surprising) that the Trump administration has not refuted any of her claims.
Having come to Washington pledging to “drain the swamp”, Trump has instead filled it with charlatans, crooks, and family members with astonishing rap sheets. Trump’s people make mafia organizations look like petty crime syndicates — from wife beaters to corporate fraudsters who have been caught bilking tax payers for millions of dollars, Trump has not only filled the US government with literal criminals, he has put in place people uniquely unqualified to do their jobs because of their obvious conflicts of interest.
The systems put in place are there for a reason. Security clearances are not perks of the job, but earned privileges issued to people who have gone through an extensive vetting process. That vetting process is there to prevent the US government from being corrupted by people who do not have its best interest at heart, and while imperfect, remains an extremely important safeguard that at least limits damage.
Newbold it seems, was simply doing her job and following protocol. Her role in the White House’s Personnel Security Office was to prevent potentially dangerous people from gaining high level access to the US government. She attempted to do just that, and was continually overruled for no legitimate reason. While the president is entitled to override security clearance objections and may have technically done nothing wrong, this is clearly further proof that Trump represents a serious threat to the nation’s security.
Had President Obama or any other President in US history done anything remotely similar, they would now be facing impeachment hearings. In Trump’s America though, it’s just Monday.
No collusion though!
Given we are only days removed from the supposed “end of the Mueller probe” where Trump was “totally exonerated” it is also worth mentioning that Newbold specifically objected to certain Trump appointees on the basis that they were potentially corruptible by “foreign influence”.
Does anyone want to take bets on which foreign country that might be?
(Correction: this article originally stated that Kline was suspended without pay for two weeks for not following a new policy. It has been corrected to reflect that it was Newbold who faced disciplinary action)
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