Four appointees who had temporary security clearances no longer have positions at the Commerce Department because of issues related to their background checks, according to a new report.
Sources told the Washington Post that the political appointees should not be allowed access to classified information.
Fred Volcansek, one of the appointees who worked as a senior adviser to Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross for several months in 2017, said he was not told why he was being terminated by the Commerce Department.
“What’s interesting is that my investigation went on for 13 months,” he said. “If they found something. … Why didn’t they bring it up before?”
Three other officials left the agency Tuesday upon being denied permanent security clearances. One of those officials, Chris Garcia, acting head of the department’s minority business development agency, said he had intended to depart the agency and decided to resign on Tuesday.
The department declined to comment to the Post, citing the Privacy Act.
The report comes as the White House is dealing with a similar conundrum after it was reported in recent weeks that dozens of staffers were still working in the administration with interim security clearances, including President Trump’s son-in-law and aide Jared Kushner and former staff secretary Rob Porter.
It was reported Tuesday that Kushner’s security clearance was downgraded from the Top Secret/SCI-level to Secret level.
