Republicans: Relax, Trump Only Endangered National Security 4–5 Times, Tops

Back in February, numerous outlets reported that the only reason Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner received top-secret security clearance last May was because President Daddy demanded it, over the objections of intelligence officials, the White House’s top lawyer, and the chief of staff at the time, all of whom worried that the First Daughter and Son-in-Law’s business entanglements and lack of experience made them prime targets for manipulation by foreign powers. (This was particularly true of of Kushner, whose family recently received a bailout from his new friends in the Middle East.) And now, we’ve learned that Javanka weren’t the only ones who allegedly got the green light to access America’s most important intelligence, despite major red flags in their files. According to whistleblower testimony from a longtime security adviser, overturning clearance denials for individuals with major skeletons in their closets has become something of an official Trump administration policy!

Speaking to lawmakers last week, Tricia Newbold, an 18-year career employee currently serving in the White House Personnel Security Office, said she “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 said that in 2018, she began keeping a list of White House employees whose security-clearance denials had been overruled, a list that grew to a mind-boggling 25 names, “including two current senior White House officials, as well as contractors and individuals.” During her interview with the Committee on Oversight and Reform, Newbold said the individuals had received denials due to a “wide range of serious disqualifying issues involving foreign influence, conflicts of interest, concerning personal conduct, financial problems, drug use, and criminal conduct.” While she understood that her and other career employees’ decisions could be overruled, she was initially concerned “that these decisions were occurring without proper analysis, documentation, or a full understanding and acceptance of the risks.” Newbold, who said she exhausted all avenues to resolve her concerns before coming to the Committee, accused Director of Personnel Security Carl Kline of:

Trying to get her to change her denial recommendation for a “high-profile official at the National Security Council,” with whom she said Kline spoke on the phone with daily;

Failing to address “disqualifying concerns” listed by Newbold and a first-line adjudicator when it came to overturning a denial for a senior White House official, and merely noting in the file that the worrisome “activities occurred prior to Federal service”;

Telling Newbold “do not touch” the application of a second “very senior White House official,” who another reviewer believed had “multiple disqualifiers, including foreign influence and outside activities” (Kline granted this person a security clearance);

Implementing a policy wherein the White House no longer checks the credit of applicants—which prevents reviewers from knowing whether applicants “could be susceptible to blackmail, depending on their debts”;

Overseeing a situation wherein the White House was “getting out of control” with the number of interim security clearances granted, enabling individuals to access sensitive, classified information for long periods of time.

Perhaps most disturbing was the retaliation Newbold said she experienced for raising concerns about risks to national security, according to the committee’s summary of her interview:

According to Ms. Newbold, the retaliation against her for raising her national security concerns began in January of 2018, when Mr. Kline began taking actions that were designed to humiliate her as a result of her rare form of dwarfism. According to Ms. Newbold, Mr. Kline repeatedly altered her office environment to cause impediments to her work, such as physically elevating personnel security files out of her reach. Ms. Newbold informed Committee staff: “These are files that we work with every day. That’s an essential part of our job.” She explained that when she let Mr. Kline know this was a problem, he replied, “I have people, they can get the files for me.” Ms. Newbold responded, “no, sir, that’s not acceptable accommodation.” She raised her concerns repeatedly to Employee Relations personnel and other White House officials, but it took approximately two months to make an accommodation so she could reach the files. According to Ms. Newbold, the files were moved out of her reach again in the spring of 2018 and yet again in October 2018.

Newbold, who said she was suspended without pay for 14 days in late January despite “no prior formal disciplinary action” in her 18 years on the job, and subsequently removed from her position as a direct supervisor, told the panel she’s “terrified of going back,” adding, “I know that this will not be perceived in favor of my intentions, which is to bring back the integrity of the office.”

In a letter to White House counsel Pat Cipollone, Representative Elijah Cummings wrote that “in light of the grave reports from this whistleblower—and the ongoing refusal of the White House to provide the information we need to conduct our investigation—the committee now plans to proceed with compulsory process and begin authorizing subpoenas, starting at tomorrow’s business meeting.” Republicans, meanwhile, say Democrats are “misusing” Newbold’s testimony to “embarrass senior White House officials” and “manufacture a misleading narrative that the Trump White House is reckless with our national security.” They’re also not entirely sure Newbold can be trusted due to complaints she raised about Kline—who, as a reminder, seemingly retaliated against her by, among other things, placing files where she couldn’t reach them. Bottom line? This is all much ado about nothing:

It’s just 4–5 people, O.K.? And, let’s not lose sight of the real national-security threat: every day Hillary Clinton is free to roam the streets.

If you would like to receive the Levin Report in your inbox daily, click here to subscribe.

Oops, Trump’s Fed nominee failed to pay $300,000 in alimony, child support

Only the best, classiest people for this administration!

Court records in Virginia obtained by the Guardian show Stephen Moore, the economics commentator chosen by Donald Trump for a seat on the Federal Reserve board, was reprimanded by a judge in November 2012 for failing to pay Allison Moore more than $300,000 in spousal support, child support and money owed under their divorce settlement. Moore continued failing to pay, according to the court filings, prompting the judge to order the sale of his house to satisfy the debt in 2013. But this process was halted by his ex-wife after Moore paid her about two-thirds of what he owed, the filings say.

In a divorce filing in August 2010, Moore was accused of inflicting “emotional and psychological abuse” on his ex-wife during their 20-year marriage. Allison Moore said in the filing she had been forced to flee their home to protect herself. She was granted a divorce in May 2011. Moore said in a court filing signed in April 2011 he admitted all the allegations in Allison Moore’s divorce complaint. He declined to comment for this article . . . Allison Moore declined to comment during a brief telephone discussion this week.

Last week, we learned that in addition to being unqualified for the Fed job in the eyes of virtually every economist to walk the earth, Moore also owes the I.R.S. more than $75,000, which his current wife insists is simply a matter of not knowing how to properly file taxes and not “an attempt at defrauding the U.S. government.”

Lawmaker whose company committed massive Medicare fraud is Trump’s pick to fix health care

Last week, fresh off the news that the Attorney General he appointed to shield him from obstruction charges had done just that, Donald Trump celebrated by declaring war on Obamacare. Despite the fact that Republicans spent nearly a decade, and Trump’s first year in office, trying and failing to repeal and replace the law, the administration chose to throw its weight behind a lawsuit attempting to invalidate the Affordable Care Act, with no alternative waiting in the wings. But don’t worry! Trump’s got a guy. Meet Senator Rick Scott:

As Florida’s governor, he presided over an epic decline in the state’s insurance coverage rate. He refused to accept Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act, depriving 1.4 million residents of coverage they would have received with the change. Scott presents himself as a health-care expert. He boasts: “I ran one of the largest health-care companies in the world.” That company is Columbia/HCA, which Scott ran until 1997. He left just months after the federal government announced a sprawling investigation into whether the company had systematically defrauded Medicare, Medicaid, and other government health-care programs.

The results of that investigation? The “largest government fraud settlement in U.S. history,” which involved Columbia/H.C.A. and several of its subsidiaries pleading guilty to 14 criminal counts and paying more than $1.7 billion in fines and penalties. Stay tuned for Act II!

Trump is down to two candidates for newly created “immigration czar” job

According to the Associated Press, the president is considering former Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach and former Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, meaning the selection process is a little bit like a sweepstakes for assholes:

Kobach, an immigration hard-liner, ran a failed bid for governor promising to drive immigrants living in the U.S. illegally out of the country and has recently been working for a nonprofit corporation, WeBuildtheWall Inc., which has been raising private money to build Trump’s wall. Cuccinelli, meanwhile, has advocated for denying citizenship to American-born children of parents living in the U.S. illegally, limiting in-state tuition at public universities only to those who are citizens or legal residents, and allowing workers to file lawsuits when an employer knowingly hires someone living in the country illegally for taking a job from a “law abiding competitor.”

On the bright side, Representative Steve “When did white nationalism become a bad thing” King is not said to be under consideration for the job, that we know of.

Lyft’s Tumbling Stock Is a Worrying Sign for Other Unicorns (Bloomberg)

Yale Grad Accused of Running Hedge-Fund Scam While in School (Bloomberg)

Aramco Tops Apple as World’s Most Profitable Company (W.S.J.)

Pete Buttigieg raises $7M before announcing presidential run (N.Y.P.)

Saudis accessed Amazon C.E.O. Jeff Bezos’s phone and gained private data, security chief says (CNBC)

Martin Shkreli Thrown in Solitary Confinement After Claims He Ran Company from Prison (Forbes)

Elon Musk’s Harambe Rap Song Is Not the April Fools’ Joke You Wish It Was (L.A. Mag)