No one except Donald Trump and his TV flak Kellyanne Conway any longer argue that Rob Porter is not a security risk to whom no security clearance can issue ever again. Classified material in Porter’s hands is a danger to the United States. Porter is known to have beaten two eminently believable ex-wives, Colbie Holderness and Jennifer Willoughby, who have come public with their credible accusations and have presented irrefutable documentary evidence and contemporaneous accounts.
A third woman, a 34-year-old government employee, who had been Porter’s girlfriend for the past three years, ending only around Thanksgiving 2017, also accused Porter of similar behavior. www.dailymail.co.uk/… She asked for anonymity, and thus her identity is not publicly known. It was presumably the same “third woman” who, in November 2017, contacted White House Counsel Don McGann to report abusive treatment by Porter. www.washingtonpost.com/... Mr. McGann had known about the accusations of Ms. Holderness and Ms. Willoughby since January 2017. www.washingtonpost.com/...
The third woman reached out to both Ms. Holderness and Ms. Willoughby to share her experiences, and in these messages stated two other stunning facts — first, that Porter was unfaithful to her (thus may have been mistreating other women at the same time), and second, that she (the “third woman”) learned of Porter’s possible involvement with Hope Hicks through suggestive text messages, back and forth, between Porter and Hicks. www.dailymail.co.uk/… This is the same Mr. Porter who handled (indeed read and screened) every document, including the most highly classified, presented to President Trump throughout his presidency. This is the very stuff of blackmail and espionage; any foreign adversary or enemy power can compromise Porter. Is it not logical that the same is true of any person with whom Porter is currently romantically involved?
The Daily Mail has been all over this story and first broke its full impact here: www.dailymail.co.uk/... It reported that White House Communications Director Hope Hicks, 29, who reportedly also sees everything the President sees, is now romatically involved with Rob Porter. This has been repeatedly reported every day through multiple sources for over one week and has never been denied. One romantically involved with a security risk is himself or herself another security risk. This leads inexorably to the question: should Hope Hicks’s security clearance be revoked? It is hard to conclude otherwise.
Let’s put aside for the moment the human factor here. Yes, anyone expecting that Mr. Porter will treat Ms. Hicks any better than he did Ms. Holderness, Ms. Willoughby, or the “third woman,” is like making out with Dracula and expecting that you will not wind up with holes in your neck. Yes, I agree with those who counsel Ms. Hicks to run, not walk, away from this relationship. But the larger question here is the security of the Nation — should Ms. Hicks keep her security clearance?
The process of granting security clearnances is rather subjective and includes a great deal of judgment. The official policy see www.state.gov/... is as follows:
It must be determined that the individual’s personal and professional history indicates loyalty to the United States, strength of character, trustworthiness, honesty, reliability, discretion, and sound judgment, as well as freedom from conflicting allegiances and potential for coercion, and a willingness and ability to abide by regulations governing the use, handling, and protection of classified information. A determination of eligibility for access to such information is a discretionary security decision based on judgments by appropriately trained adjudicative personnel. Eligibility will be granted only where facts and circumstances indicate access to classified information is clearly consistent with the national security interests of the United States.
There are traditionally 13 criteria for security clearances and they are summarized here: https://news.clearancejobs.com/2015/06/10/security-clearance-adjudicative-guidelines/ Guidelines D, E, K, and L include, respectively, “sexual behavior,” “personal conduct,” “handling protected information,” and “outside activities.” The criteria are weighed equally and subjectively, under the “whole person” concept. Id. Which is to say, is the person with the clearance a real-world security risk or not? I would give Ms. Hicks a pass on her past relationship with Cory Lewandowski, himself an abuser of women, who was then married.
Nobody except Mr. Porter, not even the FBI, know how bad his exposure is. She is already out on a limb defending him, having written the curious and infamous defense General Kelly made, that he “can’t say enough good things,” an embarassingly silly statement that Ms. Hicks helped Gen. Kelly write. As people, including those who do not wish America well, learn more and more ugly things about Rob Porter, can his girlfriend be trusted not to be comrpomised? Would you bet America’s safety on it? I would not. Her clearance is revokable and the matter of whether or not is should be revoked must be in the public debate.