Washington (CNN) The House Oversight Committee on Wednesday announced it was launching a "wide-ranging" probe into the White House's handling of its security clearance process, kicking off one of the first high-profile investigations into the Trump administration by the new, Democratic-controlled chamber.

In a letter sent by committee chairman Elijah Cummings of Maryland to White House counsel Pat Cipollone, Cummings requested a range of documents related to the security clearance process, writing that the investigation was in response to "grave breaches of national security at the highest levels of the Trump Administration, including by former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn and others."

According to the letter, sent Wednesday morning, the goals of the investigation "are to determine why the White House and Transition Team appear to have disregarded established procedures for safeguarding classified information, evaluate the extent to which the nation's most highly guarded secrets were provided to officials who should not have had access to them, and develop reforms to remedy the flaws in current White House systems and practices."

The White House did not immediately respond to CNN's request for comment.

Cummings' letter also states that the investigation will look into why the administration "is currently defying federal law by failing to provide to Congress information about its security clearance process required by the SECRET Act."

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