A new report from the Defense Department shows more than 100 defense contractors had their initial security clearances revoked last year after investigations linked the contractors to troublesome activity, including suspicious financial backgrounds, foreign government relationships, and felonies.
A report set to be released later on Wednesday report analyzed data from 200,000 defense contractors who had requested secret or top secret clearance within the last three years. Of those applicants, 486 had their clearances denied or nullified and 165 passed the first initial round of vetting, granting them access to sensitive information, NBC News reported.
Applicants were granted an initial security clearance that was later revoked when it was discovered the applicant withheld information in 151 of the cases.
According to NBC, one example of an applicant withholding information was an individual who was given an interim security clearance in 2015, and it was discovered in 2017 the contractor had been convicted of raping a child before applying for clearance.
The full report was scheduled to be released to the public on Wednesday by the Defense Department, NBC reported.
