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Ranking Member Connolly Emphasizes the National Security Risk of the White House Foregoing Background Checks

Citing Trump’s Previous Disregard for Background Checks and National Security, Ranking Member Connolly Requests the White House Counsel Deliver Documents Needed for Oversight of the Security Clearance Process

Washington, January 30, 2025

Today, Rep. Gerald E. Connolly, Ranking Member of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, sent a letter to David Warrington, Counsel to the President, expressing his grave concern regarding President Trump’s recent action that would endanger national security by allowing the White House Counsel to grant Top Secret/Sensitive Compartmented Information (TS/SCI) security clearances to individuals without appropriate vetting.   

 “This extraordinary and unprecedented action sidesteps law enforcement, the Department of Defense, and the Intelligence Community without regard to insider threats or other national security threats.   Inappropriate and unauthorized access to or disclosure of TS/SCI ‘could reasonably be expected to cause exceptionally grave damage to national security,’”  wrote Ranking Member Connolly.  “Forgoing background checks poses a major risk to our national security and throws into doubt the Executive Office of the President’s (EOP) ability to protect the safety and security of our country and the American people.”

In his letter, Ranking Member Connolly cites President Trump’s history of disdain for the security clearance, including instances in which President Trump hired staffers with conflicts of interest and ties to foreign influence.  For example, in 2019, a whistleblower told the Committee on Oversight and Reform that the Trump Administration gave clearances to 25 individuals despite “concerns about ties to foreign influence, conflicts of interest, questionable or criminal conduct, financial problems, or drug abuse.”  He also personally overruled concerns the CIA expressed about granting his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, a security clearance.

To continue the Committee Democrats’ ongoing oversight work in service of protecting the United States’ national security secrets Ranking Member Connolly requested the following documents by February 14th:

  1. The “list” of EOP employees that are to immediately receive TS/SCI clearance as a result of this memorandum;
  2. All records, documents, and communications related to background investigations for all individuals covered under the Memorandum to Resolve the Backlog of Security Clearances for Executive Office of the President Personnel; and
  3. Any records or documents of current or prospective EOP employees with foreign contacts, conflicts of interest, history of financial impropriety, or have attempted the violent overthrow of the US government.


Click here to read the letter to White House Counsel David Warrington.
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