Federal investigators for security clearances question news media contacts of military officials

Tom Vanden Brook | USA TODAY

WASHINGTON – Federal investigators who do background checks of Defense officials have been asking if those people have had contact with the news media, apparently veering off the script for national security reviews.

The questioning has alarmed good-government activists, who see it as an attempt to intimidate government officials from speaking with reporters. But the head of the agency that does background checks said that no directive has been issued to investigators on news media contacts and that a few rogue investigators may be at fault.

“If this is happening routinely, I want to make sure we have a handle on it,” said Charles Phalen, director of the National Background Investigations Bureau. “This is not what we are instructing these people to do.”

The line of questioning appears to stem from President Donald Trump's threats this month to revoke security clearances, emboldening some investigators to ask questions that had been considered out of bounds, said Danielle Brian, executive director of the Project On Government Oversight, a government watchdog organization.

“The president himself is publicly targeting people who should lose clearances,” Brian said. “That opens up the vast universe of people involved in the process to feel more at liberty to be aggressive about asking these questions.”

The question has rattled some in the national security community after Trump’s decision last week to revoke the clearance of former CIA Director John Brennan. Trump has threatened more retired and current officials with the sanction. Asking about contact with reporters carries the implicit threat of revoking or not granting security clearances, which are required for many government and contractor jobs.

In one case in recent weeks, a background investigator asked a person acting as a reference for a prospective Defense Department employee if that person had had contact with the news media, said the reference. Answering affirmatively, the reference was told, would delay and possibly prohibit the potential employee from receiving the security clearance.

The reference and the potential employee asked not to be identified out of concern that it could jeopardize their employment.

'Outside of that scope'

That type of questioning is inappropriate, Phalen said.

"This is somebody not acting within the scope of what we’re asking them to do," he said. "It’s outside of that scope. It’s that simple."

The effect of such questioning sends the signal that any interaction with the news media could be a job killer, Brian said.

“Clearly this has a chilling element because whistleblowers are afraid they could lose current or future employment by talking with the media,” he said. “It’s so subjective. A security clearance could be pulled inappropriately as retaliation when there is no evidence of releasing classified information.”

The question of news media contact can being asked on a case-by-case basis but is not a standard procedure, Phalen said. A good investigator would seek more information if the subject of the clearance investigation raised the question first.

"There’s no specific instruction to investigators to hone in on this particular issue or make it a standard question in all investigations," Phalen said.

Contact with a news reporter wouldn't automatically be disqualifying, he said. In Washington, thousands of military officials with security clearances run into reporters every day, particularly at the Pentagon. Exchanging pleasantries about the weather is not a concern of investigators, he said.

"But raising the question cold and even hinting that this becomes a problem by virtue simply of the contact is completely inappropriate," Phalen said.

Mark Zaid, an attorney who specializes in national security clearances, agreed with Phalen that the question of contact with the news media should be strictly limited. At the CIA, some officials are required to report contacts with reporters.

"I am far more concerned, especially in the D.C. area, that individuals will be stigmatized or even penalized simply because they have friends or contacts who are journalists," Zaid said. "It is an inappropriate question unless there is a substantive basis to ask, or if the individual themselves raise it as a question."