House Oversight Committee ranking member Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD) has requested the White House hand over documents related to the firing of President Donald Trump’s personal assistant Tuesday.
John McEntee, the close, long-serving aide to Trump, was reportedly fired on Tuesday over issues in his background check for obtaining security clearance, The Wall Street Journal reported.
McEntee was reportedly escorted out of the White House after his firing on Tuesday and was not even given time to collect his personal belongings, including his jacket. According to CNN, McEntee is also being investigated by the Department of Homeland Security for alleged financial crimes.
Cummings addressed the letter to Chief of Staff John Kelly and scolded the White House official for the “deficient background check process” in the West Wing.
“I have been warning for more than a year about the White House’s deficient background check process — as well as specific officials who have been granted access to our nation’s most closely guarded secrets despite derogatory information known to White House officials — you have stonewalled congressional oversight efforts and refused to provide any documents requested by me or Chairman Trey Gowdy (R-SC),” he said in the letter.
Cummings requested by March 27 McEntee’s security clearance application, the FBI’s investigative report on McEntee and all documents and communications related to discussions about McEntee and his access to sensitive or classified information. Cummings also asked for documents related to White House employees who have been granted interim security clearances since the 2016 election and documents related to any White House official who has resigned or was fired over a criminal investigation or failure to obtain a security clearance.
“This recent report about President Trump’s personal assistant is just the latest indication that the process for vetting White House employees for security issue is seriously flawed,” he wrote. “The White House’s ongoing obstruction of congressional oversight appears to be an attempt to conceal from the American people pervasive and widespread dysfunction inside the White House, which directly threatens our nation’s security.”
Read the letter below:
“The White House’s ongoing obstruction of congressional oversight appears to be an attempt to conceal from the American people pervasive and widespread dysfunction inside the White House, which directly threatens our nation’s security.”
“McEntee was reportedly escorted out of the White House after his firing on Tuesday and was not even given time to collect his personal belongings, including his jacket.”
SOP for low level contractors all the way to the WH. Nothing new or punitive.
Keep the heat on!
Financial crimes. That is a relief. At least he didn’t beat his wife.
Here’s an idea. How about we flip the House this fall so Cummings can subpoena these bastards for this information.