The saga over Rob Porter, who resigned as staff secretary at the White House last week, has left broader questions about security clearances hanging in the air.
Porter left the administration after it became public that his two ex-wives had accused him of domestic abuse. The political heat of the story was further intensified by shifting White House explanations of who knew what and when about those allegations.
The episode was rendered more explosive because Porter had worked at such a high level. His job involved frequent contact with classified materials and with President Trump himself, even though the FBI had apparently completed its investigation into him and full clearance had not been granted.
The Porter matter has renewed the spotlight on other top-level officials who still have not obtained the highest level of security clearance, more than a year after Trump’s inauguration.
Security clearance issues for Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law and a senior adviser, have often been highlighted. Six Democratic senators wrote to FBI Director Christopher Wray on Wednesday asking for a full list of White House staffers working without full security clearance.
“We are deeply concerned that high level officials operating under an interim security clearance, like Jared Kushner, read the President’s daily intelligence briefing,” the senators wrote.
An NBC News report on Thursday found that, as of November, more than 130 political appointees working in the Executive Office of the President did not have permanent security clearances.
Among the people in that category were the president’s daughter, Ivanka Trump, and director of social media Dan Scavino. NBC also listed White House counsel Don McGahn and press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders as having interim clearances as of November.
The scale of the issue is considered remarkable by some observers.
Mark Zaid, a Washington attorney who specializes in national security matters, emphasized, “While I can’t tell you it has never happened before, I can guarantee it is very unusual.”
But Zaid also cautioned against over-simplistic views of the matter, noting that having an interim security clearance in and of itself is not a major problem.
“Even having an interim over a year is not by itself an issue; there could be many reasons for that,” he said.
Sanders has been asked about the security clearance process in light of the Porter matter in recent days, but has asserted that she is unable to talk about it in specific terms.
Asked on Tuesday whether people without permanent clearance had their access to classified information limited, she responded, “I can’t speak to whether people have interim or permanent security clearances at all, and therefore can’t comment on the process.”
The question had received fresh attention because of testimony Tuesday by Dan Coats, the director of national intelligence.
Referring in general terms to people with interim security clearances, Coats told the Senate Intelligence Committee that “access has to be limited in terms of the kind of information they can be in a position to receive or not receive.”
Critics express deep concern over the situation at the White House.
“The security of our country should be a nonpartisan issue,” said Stephen Spaulding, the chief of strategy and external affairs at Common Cause, a watchdog group. “But the fact that [Trump’s] son-in-law is still in the West Wing given the complete chaos that has enveloped the White House? Yes, I think that’s a problem, and it’s something that the American people need to be paying attention to.”
Among some in Trump’s circle, there had been concern, especially at the height of the Porter scandal, that the issue of clearances could also bring other politically problematic matters involving Kushner back to the fore.
Kushner had to correct his original security clearance forms because they omitted details of about 100 foreign contacts. (Those forms were later corrected and Kushner has said the omissions were inadvertent.)
He, along with Donald Trump Jr. and then-Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, attended a deeply contentious June 2016 meeting at Trump Tower with a Russian lawyer. That meeting is being investigated by special counsel Robert Mueller.
In June 2017, The Washington Post also reported that Mueller was investigating Kushner’s “finances and business dealings.”
But other Republicans, including some who have been critical of the Trump administration, assert that some of the focus on Kushner and his clearance level is misplaced.
“It’s not anything specific to him,” said Doug Heye, a former communications director of the Republican National Committee. “If it were, it’s a very different question.”
Heye also express skepticism more broadly that the story of clearances will assume lasting significance.
“Right now, the focus has been really on what happened with Porter and I don’t see [others] being a major part of it,” he said.
Zaid, the lawyer, agreed that the issue was a broader one — but he framed it in more ominous terms, given the speculation over Kushner and others with interim clearances having access to the highly classified presidential daily briefing, or PDB.
“I’m told it is virtually unprecedented for anyone to have access to the PDB with approval at that level,” he said.
The Memo is a reported column by Niall Stanage, primarily focused on Donald Trump’s presidency.