Official says White House never told him to change a security clearance decision: source

[webfact]

Official says White House never told him to change a security clearance decision: source

By Mark Hosenball

 

FILE PHOTO: The U.S. Capitol is shown after the U.S. government reopened with about 800,000 federal workers returning after a 35-day shutdown in Washington, U.S., January 28, 2019. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts/File Photo

 

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The former head of White House security clearances told congressional investigators on Wednesday he was never instructed to change a security clearance determination by anyone at the White House, a source familiar with his closed-door interview said.

 

Carl Kline spoke with investigators after days of conflict over whether he would appear. He told them all security clearance decisions were made by career professionals and he was never asked by anyone in the White House or Oval Office to do his job differently, the source said.

 

Kline's appearance before investigators of the House of Representatives Oversight Committee came as the panel is looking into the issuance of high-level security clearances to some staffers in the Trump White House, despite recommendations from career officials that those officials should not receive them.

 

Trump's daughter Ivanka Trump and her husband Jared Kushner were among the two dozen or so staffers who got those clearances, said two congressional sources familiar with the matter. Kline was in charge of White House clearances at the time.

 

Kline has since left the White House and is now a Defense Department employee.

 

The committee voted on April 2 to subpoena Kline, compelling him to appear to testify on the matter. The Trump administration initially told Kline to ignore the subpoena. Last week, Trump told reporters: "We're fighting all the subpoenas."

 

After Republican committee member Jim Jordan intervened, the Democratic chairman of the panel, Elijah Cummings, said three days ago he was putting off holding Kline in contempt of Congress after an agreement was reached permitting him to meet with investigators.

 

The clearances investigation was triggered earlier this year by a whistleblower. It is one of multiple probes being pursued by House Democrats into Trump, his presidency and his businesses. Some of the inquiries are expected to run into the 2020 presidential election season.

 

Before the Wednesday meeting, a White House lawyer said that Kline would talk with the committee, but was not authorized to discuss individual clearances. In a letter to Cummings, White House Counsel Pat Cipollone said Kline had agreed to appear for a closed-door committee interview, despite the subpoena.

 

Cipollone indicated in the letter that Kline would likely decline to answer questions from the Democratic-controlled House panel about clearances issued to specific individuals.

 

"No employee of the executive branch is or has been authorized to disclose to the committee information about individual security clearance files or background investigations," Cipollone said in the letter.

 

Cummings sought testimony from Kline after Tricia Newbold, a career White House security official, alleged that clearances initially were denied to at least two dozen Trump administration officials over concerns about possible foreign influence, conflicts of interest, questionable or criminal conduct, financial problems or drug abuse.

 

In a letter to the White House last month, Cummings referred to three unnamed "senior White House officials" whose clearance histories were addressed in some detail by Newbold.

 

Information obtained by the committee said two of those three senior officials were Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner.

 

The White House has declined to comment on issues related to the couple's clearances.

 

Cipollone said there are no legitimate grounds or precedents for sharing individual security clearance records with Congress.

 

"It has long been recognized on both sides of the political aisle that there is no legitimate need for access to such sensitive information about individuals," he told Cummings.

 

Cummings condemned the White House's stance, saying Cipollone's letter "ignores past precedent when the committee obtained security clearance documents, it disregards previous testimony ... from White House officials in the past, and it makes the startling and false claim that Congress has no right to obtain information from whistleblowers."

 

(Reporting by Mark Hosenball; editing by Kevin Drawbaugh, David Gregorio and Lisa Shumaker)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2019-05-02

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[Puchaiyank]

OMG...another official getting his orders straight from Trump...when will this madness end?   ???? 

[thaibeachlovers]

2 hours ago, webfact said:

It is one of multiple probes being pursued by House Democrats into Trump, his presidency and his businesses. Some of the inquiries are expected to run into the 2020 presidential election season.

Yup, IMO they've got nothing else now the Mueller investigaton has finished. I fully expect the democrat members to spin them out as long as possible.

[Chomper Higgot]

Kline’s defense is remarkably simple, it only has two parts:

 

Part 1 - I declare my innocence.

 

Part 2 - I declare Congress has no right to see the evidence that would prove the veracity of Part 1.

 

To be fair minded about this, Part 1 of Kline’s defense may or may not be true.

 

But then the assertion in Part 2 of his defense is utter nonsense.

 

 

It seems in Kline we have another example of an individual willing to destroy his reputation and put himself in very serious legal jeopardy on behalf of Trump.

 

Cummings is going to nail him!

 

[Tug]

Mr Kline better hope to god they don’t have any evidence or he will see jail and no pension!

[Trouble]

9 hours ago, Chomper Higgot said:

Kline’s defense is remarkably simple, it only has two parts:

 

Part 1 - I declare my innocence.

 

Part 2 - I declare Congress has no right to see the evidence that would prove the veracity of Part 1.

 

To be fair minded about this, Part 1 of Kline’s defense may or may not be true.

 

But then the assertion in Part 2 of his defense is utter nonsense.

 

 

It seems in Kline we have another example of an individual willing to destroy his reputation and put himself in very serious legal jeopardy on behalf of Trump.

 

Cummings is going to nail him!

 

Where did that come from?  The report states that a source close to the investigation said Kline stated that no one in the White House ever asked him to change a security clearance determination. End of story. If someone was initially denied a clearance for some reason or there were questions on the Personal History Statement, the normal process would be to ask for more information from the subject or conduct additional investigation and remedy any discrepancies.  This is just another Congressional committee lead by that old man Cummings trying to find anything to hang on Trump.  

[Scott]

Troll post and replies removed.

 

[Chomper Higgot]

3 hours ago, Trouble said:

Where did that come from?  The report states that a source close to the investigation said Kline stated that no one in the White House ever asked him to change a security clearance determination. End of story. If someone was initially denied a clearance for some reason or there were questions on the Personal History Statement, the normal process would be to ask for more information from the subject or conduct additional investigation and remedy any discrepancies.  This is just another Congressional committee lead by that old man Cummings trying to find anything to hang on Trump.  

Kline’s statements are in the bag. 

 

‘Old man’ Cummings will now go after and get the records.

 

Kline is toast.

 

[TPI]

8 hours ago, Trouble said:

Where did that come from?  The report states that a source close to the investigation said Kline stated that no one in the White House ever asked him to change a security clearance determination. End of story. If someone was initially denied a clearance for some reason or there were questions on the Personal History Statement, the normal process would be to ask for more information from the subject or conduct additional investigation and remedy any discrepancies.  This is just another Congressional committee lead by that old man Cummings trying to find anything to hang on Trump.  

When are Cummings feet going to be held to the fire? Why can't the Dem's get on with running the country, they're all in Congress, they're all on the "gravy train", just get on with it!

[Tug]

40 minutes ago, TPI said:

When are Cummings feet going to be held to the fire? Why can't the Dem's get on with running the country, they're all in Congress, they're all on the "gravy train", just get on with it!

It’s called oversite it’s part of their duty you might ask Donald to stop obstructing so said oversite can be carried out so the business of state can be carried out

[Scott]

Off-topic posts removed.