After Porter Scandal, Kelly Sends Out Memo Announcing Changes to Security Clearance Process

Chief of Staff John Kelly has proposed a number of sweeping changes to how the President Donald Trump White House secures security clearances, in the wake of the Rob Porter scandal, in which the aide is alleged to have abused two of his ex-wives.

The proposed changes, obtained by The Washington Post, came with a memo from Kelly himself, in which seemingly addressed the controversy, which led to an investigation that discovered over 130 White House officials did not have full security clearance.

“We should — and in the future, must — do better,” he wrote. “But recent events have exposed some remaining shortcomings.”

The document, titled “Improvements to the clearance process,” is addressed to White House Counsel Don McGahn and outlines a number of key proposals, including a suggestion that flagged candidates immediately be run up the totem pole.

“Going forward, all [background investigations] of potential Commissioned Officers should be flagged for the FBI at the outset and then hand-delivered to the White House Counsel personally upon completion,” the proposal reads. “The FBI official who delivers these files should verbally brief the White House Counsel on any information in those files they deem to be significantly derogatory.”

Kelly also wrote of setting “benchmarks” for getting security clearances done in a timely fashion, though per WaPo he did not give any concrete details.

Additionally, the Chief of Staff wrote that the Personnel Security Office needs “major changes to reduce redundancies and bottlenecks.”

[image via screenshot]

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