White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said Tuesday that Democrats investigating the security clearances of White House officials are undermining the personal privacy of 3 million people who hold clearances.
Sanders accused Democrats of playing “a very dangerous and a shameful game” investigating whistleblower Tricia Newbold’s claim that 25 White House officials were given security clearances after an initial denial by career staff.
“I’m not going to get into individual security clearances, but what the Democrats are doing is playing a very dangerous and a shameful game, frankly,” Sanders told reporters on the White House driveway.
“They are asking for personal, private and confidential information from individuals that they know that they have no right to see, and they are putting the 3 million people that do have a security clearance at risk,” Sanders said. “If you put and exploit one individual, you are putting all 3 million people’s personal information at risk. And that’s shameful that they are doing that.”
House Oversight Committee Chairman Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., said Monday that Newbold, an 18-year employee for the Executive Office of the President, claimed denials made by career staff were inexplicably reversed, and that she believes the reversals were “not always adjudicated in the best interest of national security.”
Newbold said “two current senior White House officials” are involved, having had had “a wide range of serious disqualifying issues involving foreign influence, conflicts of interest, concerning personal conduct, financial problems, drug use, and criminal conduct.”
Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner reportedly was issued a clearance on Trump’s orders, after other officials raised concerns.
Democrats on the House Oversight Committee have moved to subpoena White House Personnel Security Director Carl Kline to testify about clearances, with an order for Kline to testify expected Tuesday.
Sanders said that White House officials would cooperate, but only to an extent.
“We have worked with Democrats, we have cooperated with them throughout the process, we showed them documents that have to do with the security clearance process. We went over to the Hill and walked them through that we invited those individuals and their staff to come to the White House to sit down,” Sanders said.
But Sanders added: “We have a policy here at the White House not to discuss individual security clearances. We are not going to exploit individuals and their personal information at the hands of Democrats who want to play political games.”
[Opinion: Security clearances should not be a partisan issue]
