A former White House official who was accused of overturning security clearances for people who were found to have “serious disqualifying issues” will appear before the House Oversight Committee on April 23, The Washington Post reports.
Carl Kline, the former White House personnel security director, will testify as part of the panel’s investigation into security clearances in President Donald Trump’s White House. A whistleblower in his office accused him of granting security clearances to people that she and some of her fellow employees had found issue with.
“I regret the circumstances that have resulted in the committee on Oversight and Reform electing to subpoena Carl Kline, despite our legitimate offer to have him appear voluntarily,” Kline’s lawyer, Robert N. Driscoll, wrote in a letter to the committee.
Tricia Newbold, the whistleblower, told the committee last March that Kline overruled several clearance-denial recommendations, including a clearance application from White House adviser Jared Kushner, and subsequently retaliated when she complained.
“By corollary, it is not Mr. Kline’s role to comment on the strength of any such assertions, but to comply with instructions from the White House regarding appropriate scope of testimony,” Driscoll wrote. “I fully understand you may not see things the same way, but it is my sincere hope that we can avoid a harmful and costly inter-branch dispute that has a 40-plus year public servant and military veteran hanging in the balance.”
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