House Oversight Committee Chairman Elijah Cummings (D-MD) sent a letter to the White House on Friday requesting documents and witnesses for a probe into alleged security clearance abuses involving President Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner and others, according to CNN.
Rep. Cummings wrote: “I am now writing a final time to request your voluntary cooperation," since if the White House does not abide, Cummings has subpoena power.
The Maryland Democrat highlighted the recent New York Times story which said Trump ordered his former chief of staff John Kelly to provide Kushner with the security clearance over objections from Kelly and former White House counsel Donald McGahn.
"If true, these new reports raise grave questions about what derogatory information career officials obtained about Mr. Kushner to recommend denying him access to our nation's most sensitive secrets, why President Trump concealed his role in overruling that recommendation, why General Kelly and Mr. McGahn both felt compelled to document these actions, and why your office is continuing to withhold key documents and witnesses from this Committee," Cummings wrote on Friday.
The Times said Kelly and McGahn both wrote memos about the incident, with McGahn's outlining concerns raised about Kushner by longtime security officials, including CIA officers.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Oversight Committee first began its investigation on Jan. 23 into Kushner's security clearances.
Cummings said he and his staff had spoken and written to the White House numerous times about obtaining documents and witnesses.
Kelly suspended Kushner's temporary clearance in February 2018, along with other officials who were using temporary clearances to help tighten procedures after White House staff secretary Rob Porter was fired when a number of domestic abuse allegations were revealed.
Cummings said he gave detailed descriptions of security clearance abuses by at least nine high-level White House officials, including a transcript with Trump from the Times where the President denied ordering Kelly to overrule security officials.
The letter said Trump claimed he did not have authority to overrule security officials on clearance matters, but White House adviser Kellyanne Conway told NBC on Friday Trump had "absolute authority" to do so.
-WN.com, Maureen Foody
Photo:
AP / Andrew Harnik, FILE
