https://qz.com/904880/a-newsweek-reporter-is-suing-the-federal-government-to-learn-how-it-vetted-trumps-advisers-for-security-clearances/
As a national security correspondent for Newsweek, reporter Jeffrey Stein knows he can’t see classified US government documents and doesn’t want to. He is, however, interested in how some of US president Donald Trump’s closest advisors—including Steve Bannon, Rex Tillerson, and Trump’s own family members—got the necessary clearances to begin receiving security briefings, despite allegations and connections that he argues should have raised red flags in the reviewing process.
On Jan. 31, Stein sued multiple agencies of the federal government demanding to know the process used to vet and approve 15 of Trump’s picks. Stein argues, for example, that three of Trump’s children and Tillerson, the new US secretary of state, have had extensive business ties to foreign nations that normally would raise clearance alarms.
He argues that Bannon, the White House senior strategist who will sit on the National Security Council, was criminally charged with domestic violence and has ties to white supremacist organizations, two strikes that would have made him an unlikely candidate for the highest levels of clearance. (Politico reported in August that Bannon, a former banker and Breitbart News executive, was charged with abuse by his now-ex-wife in 1996, and the police report noted red marks on her neck, but she didn’t show up in court and the case was dropped.)
Based on statements made by intelligence officers in the press in May expressing doubt about the Trump team’s suitability for clearance, Stein filed Freedom of Information Act requests asking about the clearance process its members were undergoing. The requests were denied. His lawsuit, reported by Courthouse News, seeks “all records, including emails, about any steps taken to investigate or authorize (or discussions about potentially investigating or authorizing) [15 individuals] for access to classified information.”
= new reply since forum marked as read
