Congress Will Get Their Security Clearance Testimony After All

In the never-ending saga of democratic anger and revenge, there have been a litany of issues for which subpoenas have been flying off of the shelves.

This all comes, of course, in the wake of the Mueller report’s publication; a 400+ page document that couldn’t explicitly implicate the President of the United States in a crime, while also explicitly not exonerating him either.

In short:  It’s a sticky situation on Capitol Hill, and the false choice of left versus right has all of America rabid with misplaced vitriol.  After all, we all agree that Russia interfered with the 2016 election, and there’s no doubt that they’re coming for 2020 too.  Perhaps it’s time to set the bickering aside and get to work on that problem.

On the periphery of the Mueller report, and being a bit overshadowed by its own timing, was a request to have White House security adviser Carl Kline testify before Congress on the matter of several Trump administration security clearances that were granted despite their being major issues during the vetting process.

After rebuking lawmakers at first, the White House has now agreed to allow Kline to speak…but with some caveats.

The White House said on Friday it has consented to a former staffer appearing before a congressional panel for an “on the record interview,” accompanied by his lawyers, regarding security clearance policies and procedures.

The “reasonable accommodation offer” of a voluntary appearance by former White House Personnel Security Director Carl Kline before the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Reform was disclosed in a letter to the panel’s ranking Republican, Jim Jordan.

It came after Jordan, better known for stoking than soothing partisan frictions, sought to defuse tensions between House Democrats and the Trump administration with a letter urging the White House to agree to a voluntary committee interview on April 30 or May 1, according to two sources who saw Jordan’s letter.

The entire issue stems from a number of intelligence whistleblowers who were concerned with the security clearance within the Trump White House, especially after clearances were granted to administration members whose background checks were troublesome.