Jordan and Meadows Urge Cummings to Review Security Clearance Practices in Obama Administration

WASHINGTON, DC – Today, Representative Jim Jordan (R-OH), Ranking Member of the Committee on Oversight and Reform, and Representative Mark Meadows (R-NC), Ranking Member of the Government Operations Subcommittee, sent a letter to Chairman Elijah Cummings (D-MD) urging him to refocus his investigation away from partisan attacks on the President by examining security clearance processes in the previous administration. The Committee has received testimony suggesting long-standing issues with the security clearances adjudication function. The Committee should obtain additional documents to provide necessary perspective for the Chairman’s investigation.

The request follows a letter from Robert Driscoll, the attorney representing Carl Kline, suggesting the Chairman’s investigation would be incomplete and inaccurate if it did not assess this historical information.

“Mr. Driscoll’s request to you is an opportunity to prove that you are not using the Committee to target the President or his senior advisors. We understand that senior officials in the previous administration may have had problems with regard to their security clearance applications. According to public reports, Ben Rhodes, a former senior national security and foreign policy advisor in the previous administration, obtained a high-level clearance despite a questionable background investigation that may have led the Federal Bureau of Investigation to deny him an interim clearance. Similar troublesome issues also may have plagued the clearance process for former senior advisor Valerie Jarrett, among others.”