John Kelly announced significant changes to the White House’s security clearance and hiring processes on Friday as he took steps to protect the administration from bringing aboard another Rob Porter.
In a memo that the White House shared with reporters, Kelly said incoming employees would no longer be granted access to the complex until the Office of Personnel Security has a chance to assess their suitability for employment.
Kelly said that he had already ended the White House’s practice of granting interim security clearance to new hires outside of ‘extraordinary circumstances’ dictated by him.
‘In ordinary circumstances, the existing processes we inherited, along with the reforms I have implemented in the past months, have generally worked well. But recent events have exposed some remaining shortcomings,’ he stated in a read-between-the-lines reference to Porter, a disgraced Trump aide whose alleged pattern of domestic abuse has been at the center of a 10-day White House saga.
White House Chief of John Kelly said Friday that he was making significant changes to the security clearance and hiring processes in a move meant to keep the administration from bringing aboard another Rob Porter
Kelly is seen walking to Marine One on the South Lawn of White House today with White House Director of Social Media Dan Scavino (LEFT), personnel director Johnny DeStefano (CENTER RIGHT) and National Security Council Chief of Staff Keith Kellogg (RIGHT)
Trump and his wife are spending the weekend in Florida at their Palm Beach resort. Kelly was among the aides seen boarding Air Force One
Porter resigned from is position as staff secretary last week after DailyMail.com published detailed, on-the-record allegations from two ex-wives who say the former Trump aide abused them.
Kelly had been aware of the allegations since last year, yet Porter was allowed to remain on staff with interim access to classified material at the highest level while his background check was adjudicated.
The Office of Personnel Security is said to have had Porter’s completed FBI background check and was conducting its own investigation when DailyMail.com printed his ex-wives’ allegations.
Porter was one of the White House’s first hires – coming on board President Trump’s staff on the day of his 2017 inauguration.
Yet, 13 months later he still had interim clearance as the authorities continued to evaluate what the White House now says are ‘credible’ and ‘true’ allegations of domestic abused.
Kelly’s memo on future clearance practices is addressed to White House Counsel Don McGahn, Attorney General Jeff Sessions, FBI Director Christopher Wray, National Security Advisor H.R.McMaster, Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats and Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations Joe Hagin.
McGahn is also said to have known about Porter’s background prior to his resignation.
Wray testified this week that the FBI provided an update on Porter to the White House in November and closed its file in January. It submitted its findings immediately to the White House, where Trump spokeswoman Sarah Sanders has said the personnel security office was conducting its own investigation.
Kelly’s memo on future clearance practices is addressed to White House Counsel Don McGahn, Attorney General Jeff Sessions, FBI Director Christopher Wray, National Security Advisor H.R.McMaster, Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats and Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations Joe Hagin
Kelly’s job was thought to be in jeopardy over the fiasco earlier in the week, but he was seen with Trump in the Oval Office on Friday
Kelly’s job was thought to be in jeopardy over the fiasco earlier in the week, but he was seen with Trump in the Oval Office on Friday before he and several other top-ranking aides followed the president onto Marine One.
Trump and his wife are spending the weekend in Florida at their Palm Beach resort.
Kelly was among the aides seen boarding Air Force One.