In a press release early Wednesday morning, Democrats on the House Oversight Committee led by Rep. Elijah Cummings — who has been pursuing investigations into misdeeds by the Trump administration since the campaign and transition — announced a new oversight investigation into numerous security issues within the administration, including their process for issuing and reviewing security clearances.
Cummings laid out a number of violations by the White House and requested reports about clearance issues for:
- Former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn
- Michael Flynn, Jr.
- Former Deputy National Security Advisor K.T. McFarland
- Current National Security Advisor John Bolton
- Senior Adviser to the President Jared Kushner
- Former White House Staff Secretary Robert Porter
- Former National Security Council Senior Director Robin Townley
- President Trump’s Former Personal Assistant, John McEntee
- Former Deputy Assistant to the President Sebastian Gorka
MSNBC contributor Joyce Vance tweeted a summary of what Cummings had questions on:
Any single one of those violations is pretty bad by itself, but put all together like that, it looks like a serious pattern of abuse and neglect by the Trump White House. Maybe the most egregious example to me is that of Jared Kushner, who very publicly failed to qualify for a security clearance over and over, updating his paperwork and applications dozens of times before finally getting one — and we’re still not exactly sure how he did, especially after having lied so many times previously.
All of that is public knowledge, and the White House has simply proceeded as though it was normal, partially because before Democrats took back control of the House of Representatives, there simply was no oversight and no questioning of the process or motives or procedures. Republicans just had no interest in holding Trump or his administration to account for anything.
It looks like Democrats are about to change all of that.
Featured image via screen capture
