A former official, who oversaw the security clearance process, has been told by the White House not to comply with a House subpoena ordering him to testify, CNN is reporting.
Carl Kline, who now works at the Defense Department, had been subpoenaed to give a deposition by the House Oversight Committee. White House officials maintain Democrats on the committee were trying to gain access to confidential information.
In a letter to Kline’s lawyer, White House deputy counsel Michael Purpura asked that Kline not show up to the committee as requested, according to The Washington Post.
Purpura wrote that the committee subpoena “unconstitutionally encroaches on fundamental executive branch interests.”
And in a letter to the committee, Kline’s attorney, Robert Driscoll said: “With two masters from two equal branches of government, we will follow the instructions of the one that employs him,” Driscoll wrote in the letter to the committee chairman.
Tricia Newbold, a White House personnel security whistleblower, has claimed the administration had been recklessly granting security clearances to some individuals, the Post said. Included in those clearances she questioned, was one granted to Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, the newspaper noted.
CNN said the failure of Kline to appear before the committee, will leave open the possibility that the House panel could try to hold him in contempt for ignoring the subpoena.
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