US House Democrats Launch Probe Of White House Security Clearances - Oversight Panel

A US House oversight committee is launching a broad-based investigation of security clearance procedures at the White House, Congressman Elijah Cummings said in a letter to the Trump administration on Wednesday

WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 23rd January, 2019) A US House oversight committee is launching a broad-based investigation of security clearance procedures at the White House, Congressman Elijah Cummings said in a letter to the Trump administration on Wednesday.

"The Committee on Oversight and Reform is launching an in depth investigation of the security clearance process at the White House and Transition Team in response to grave breaches of national security at the highest levels of the Trump administration, including by former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn and others," Cummings, the panel's chairman, said in the 11-page letter to White House Counsel Pat Cipollone.

The letter named more than a half-dozen current and former White House officials and requests documentation for 13 decisions to revoke, add or modify existing security clearances.

In one example, the letter accuses the White House of failing to disclose whether National Security Adviser John Bolton disclosed prior contacts with Maria Butina, who pleaded guilty to failing to disclose ties with Russian officials while working on gun rights initiatives during the 2016 US presidential elections.

In many cases, the documents reflect written requests from Democrats on the committee that have gone unanswered in the past two years.

Democrats who now control the House, with the ability to subpoena witnesses and otherwise force the Trump administration to comply with document requests, have pledged to launch multiple investigations in the next two years.