Accusations Against Aide Renew Attention on White House Security Clearances<br />Abbe D. Lowell, Mr. Kushner’s lawyer, said in a statement<br />that “it is not uncommon for this process to take this long in a new administration (some taking as long as two years)” and that there are “a dozen or more people at Mr. Kushner’s level whose process is delayed like his.”<br />Questions about the security clearance process at the White House have become more urgent after the scandal surrounding Mr. Porter<br />and the still-unanswered questions about when the president’s aides knew about the abuse allegations against him.<br />People familiar with the security clearance process in Mr. Trump’s White House said it was widely acknowledged among senior aides<br />that raising questions about unresolved vetting issues in a staff member’s background would implicitly reflect on Mr. Kushner’s status, as well — a situation made more awkward because Mr. Kushner is married to the president’s daughter Ivanka.<br />Ms. Sanders referred questions about the security clearance process —<br />and why Mr. Porter was allowed to continue working at the White House for so long despite the abuse accusations — to the F. B.I.<br />“If you had agreed to any of our previous requests for information on these matters, the White House would have been<br />required to answer key questions about why Mr. Porter was denied a final security clearance,” Mr. Cummings wrote.<br />Representative Trey Gowdy, Republican of South Carolina<br />and the chairman of the House Oversight Committee, has refused to ask the White House for any information about security clearances or for a formal briefing on the matter, Democrats on the panel said Monday.<br />“I can’t get into the specifics,” Ms. Sanders said in response to questions about what Donald<br />F. McGahn II, the White House counsel, knew about the Porter allegations and when he knew it.
