Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

EDITORIAL:

An American hero blows the whistle on security clearance scandal

In a bleak time for our nation’s democracy, it’s a relief knowing that courageous and patriotic Americans like Tricia Newbold are still serving our country.

Newbold is the veteran White House staffer who blew the whistle on the Trump administration for granting security clearances to 25 people over the recommendations of staff — including Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump.

In coming forward to the House Oversight Committee last month with her concerns, Newbold did her fellow Americans a tremendous service. What she reported was nothing short of alarming: that individuals who’d been flagged for such serious issues as drug problems, foreign influence, past criminal conduct and conflicts of interest had been given clearances.

Considering that those issues could make a person susceptible to being blackmailed by foreign agents hoping to gain access to top-secret information, Newbold’s allegations have serious implications for national security.

Needless to say, she aired her allegations at considerable risk. But she apparently felt she had no choice but to go public, saying she’d been raising concerns internally for months with no resolution.

“I would not be doing a service to myself, my country or my children if I sat back knowing that the issues that we have could impact national security,” Newbold reportedly told the committee. “I feel that right now, this is my last hope to really bring the integrity back into our office.”

What an inspirational figure. What’s more, Newbold stuck to her principles despite reportedly facing retaliation and a particularly cruel form of bullying by her Trump-appointee boss, Carl Kline. Newbold, who has a rare form of dwarfism, told NBC News that Kline moved files to a shelf too high for her to reach after she raised concerns about the clearances.

That’s absolutely disgusting. It speaks highly of Newbold’s character and principles that she persevered and continued to serve.

“As little as I am, I’m willing to fight and stand up for what I know is right, and they’ve always respected that about me,” she told the House committee. “It’s humiliating to not be able to independently work and do the job that you need.”

Newbold also said Kline tried to force her to change a recommendation, suspended her for 14 days without pay and was demoted upon her return despite having faced no prior formal disciplinary action during her 18 years of service. Kline, who at the time was White House personnel security chief, has since moved on to the Defense Department.

Newbold, meanwhile, has gritted it out. In fact, she showed up to the office just like usual the day after the committee released documents in which she detailed her allegations.

“As you can imagine, I am extremely nervous for how people at work will treat me,” she wrote in an email, according to The New York Times.

What fortitude. What character.

Yet naturally, Trump’s extremist supporters tried to paint this brave lady as a Democratic Party operative and a member of the Deep State, whatever that is.

Wrong. Newbold has served during the administrations of both Republican and Democratic presidents stretching back to the Clinton years. Her position is nonpartisan and so is her office, which is filled with holdovers from other administrations.

In media interviews, Newbold has said she loves her job and is not a disgruntled employee.

So, contrary to right-wing paranoia, Newbold is a dedicated public servant who, by all appearances, has spent her career trying to do the right thing for her fellow Americans.

In this case, she said, that includes notifying Congress about the shady actions involving clearances.

Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, was identified this past week as a key figure in Newbold’s testimony. Named in documents as “Senior White House Official 1,” Kushner reportedly was initially denied clearance because of concerns about foreign influence, private business interests and personal conduct.Last year, Trump ordered then-chief of staff John Kelly to approve Kushner’s clearance.

In an interview with The Washington Post, a former senior Justice Department official during the George W. Bush and Obama administrations said Newbold’s concerns were “very serious.”

“Senior staff at the White House — and particularly relatives of the U.S. president — are incredibly attractive targets for our adversaries seeking to gather intelligence or exert covert influence,” said the official, David Kris.

The House committee’s chairman, Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., called Newbold a “brave young lady.”

“She came forward because the system at the White House is so dysfunctional that she believes Congress needs to intervene,” Cummings said. “In other words, she’s crying out — she’s begging us to do something — because she simply wants her government to work the way it’s supposed to work.”

Cummings said “she called on us to act, to do our jobs.”

And that’s exactly what Congress must do — keep probing, get to the bottom of the allegations and take corrective action if necessary.

Newbold deserves that much. So do her fellow Americans, whom she’s served so well in refusing to be silenced.