The Rob Porter incident, in which a White House aide who had a history of spousal abuse and domestic violence allegations still had access to secure documents, has thrown attention on the strange story of security clearances in the White House. While security clearance standards are usually ridiculously stringent for the rest of the federal government, the Trump White House is letting some seriously questionable and potentially easily-compromised characters—like son-in-law Jared Kushner—have access to the most critical classified information.
Lawyers say they’ve seen government workers and federal contractors run into serious clearance problems over occasional marijuana use, routine debts or small-scale foreign investments while top Trump officials like former staff secretary Rob Porter worked with a clearance for about a year despite allegations of spousal abuse. President Donald Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, continues to hold a clearance despite owing tens of millions of dollars in debt—some owed to a German bank.
"They're getting away with murder," said Sheldon Cohen, a Virginia attorney who spent two decades representing workers in clearance fights. "What is going on in the White House, if it was taking place involving people at agencies or in private industry, they would never get a clearance." […]
"If Kushner or these other folks were just regular employees, there's no way they would have gotten interim clearances. They're receiving some special dispensation somewhere up the food chain," said Elaine Fitch, an attorney in Washington who handles cases for government employees. "It's absolutely not fair. ... Most of our clients are treated much worse than what's going on with these folks in the White House."
Another attorney, Mark Zaid told Politico "I've had people denied clearance based upon school debt that they had, about $300,000 to $400,000 in combined college and grad school debt, even though they were timely in paying it."
One talked about a CIA contractor who lost his clearance "after he was charged with child endangerment for driving too fast with his children in the car, even though a judge dismissed the charges at a trial." He lost his job, even though he reported the incident immediately and got the counseling about safe driving with kids he was supposed to get.
The FBI conducts background checks and provides recommendations on whether staff should be allowed security clearances, and the White House has the power to ignore those recommendations. Outside of the White House, the investigations on executive staff are done by Office of Personnel Management investigators or contractors. Outside of the White House, all the old rules apparently still apply.
But it's the Trump White House, so anything goes there—even employing people who are ripe for blackmail and are likely under investigation for possibly colluding with a foreign adversary to win an election. But hell, with a president who meets that criteria getting all the top-secret information, you can't really argue that his staff shouldn't.