White House Contractor Arrested On Murder Charges Had Security Clearance

A member of the Secret Service's uniformed division patrols Pennsylvania Avenue in front of the White House on October 27, 2017 in Washington, DC. / AFP PHOTO / Brendan Smialowski (Photo credit should read BRE... A member of the Secret Service's uniformed division patrols Pennsylvania Avenue in front of the White House on October 27, 2017 in Washington, DC. / AFP PHOTO / Brendan Smialowski (Photo credit should read BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP/Getty Images) MORE LESS

Martese Edwards, the National Security Council contractor who was arrested on a murder warrant at a White House secret service checkpoint Wednesday, had obtained a security clearance despite allegedly shooting his ex-girlfriend’s boyfriend, according to a Wednesday Daily Beast report.

Besides the murder charges, Edwards has run into legal problems related to assault twice before.

Per the Daily Beast, prosecutors in Prince George’s County charged Edwards with second-degree assault in May 2015, later dismissing the case for unknown reasons. In August 2013, he was reportedly involved in another legal proceeding over domestic violence and was served with an interim restraining order. That case was also dropped when the petitioner did not appear in court.

That both previous cases did not end in convictions could reportedly explain why Edwards was still able to obtain a White House job with security clearance.

An unnamed White House spokesperson told the Daily Beast that he was hired to “provide temporary services” to the NSC in December 2017.

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  1. Avatar for jsfox jsfox says:

    Why of course he did.

  2. I imagine lying about being a police officer at the DIA in 2012 should have stopped his clearance application. That was found by the Daily Beast.
    The arrest warrant is only 3 weeks old and he did get stopped???

  3. He needed the clearance for that big Pizza-parlor investigation.

  4. So Dotard was truly planning on going after Jim Comey?

  5. It’s ATTEMPTED murder! No proofreaders? And he had his security clearance since 2017.

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