New York, .- The White House granted security credentials to 25 people around President Donald Trump whose requests had been rejected by officials previously, said a worker to the US Congress and reported Monday by local media.
According to the information, the manager of the Office of Security Personnel in the White House, Tricia Newbold, informed the Committee of Oversight and Reform of the House of Representatives that among them were two high-level officials who continue to work in the Trump administration, as well as other contractors and employees of the president’s office.
According to the media, which cites a memo issued by the Democratic Party, the workers who were granted such security clearance were not identified.
However, The New York Times highlights previous information in which they claimed that President Donald Trump himself forced his former chief of staff, John Kelly – who left office in December – to give a pass to the son-in-law of the president, Jared Kushner. , who acts as an adviser to the president.
Newbold, who has worked for the White House for 18 years, assured the committee that the credentials were denied for reasons that included “foreign influence, conflicts of interest, personal behavior, financial problems, drug use and criminal behavior.”
These rejections were amended by other high-ranking officials who did not follow procedures designed to mitigate security risks.
“I feel that, right now, this is my last hope to bring integrity back to our office,” the worker told the committee on March 23, which decided to testify after her complaints to her superiors were not heard.
Statements to the Committee, controlled by the Democratic Party, will increase pressure on the White House over practices to ensure security around national secrets and other high-level cases.
In addition, the president of the Committee, the Democrat Elijah Cummings, sent a letter to the White House on Monday to request additional information about these processes, as well as to make personnel available to the chamber for questioning.
All in all, the White House argues that the granting of security credentials is exclusive to the executive branch and that Congress has no authority to require that kind of information.
Cummings required information on the awarding of Kushner’s security passes, his wife and daughter and adviser to President Ivanka Trump, and national security adviser John Bolton. (EFEUSA)
