Washington, D.C. (Jan. 24, 2019)—Today, Rep. Elijah E. Cummings, the Chairman of the Committee on Oversight and Reform, issued the following statement in response to breaking news that a supervisor overruled two career officials who recommended against granting Jared Kushner a top secret security clearance based on foreign influence concerns:

Yesterday, I launched a wide-ranging investigation of the White House’s security clearance process based on a series of grave breaches over the past two years. My request letter to the White House explicitly covers Mr. Kushner, and we expect the White House to produce all of the documents and interviews we requested to determine if tonight’s breaking story is accurate. The system is supposed to be a nonpartisan determination of an individual’s fitness to hold a clearance, not an ad hoc approach that overrules career experts to give the President’s family members access to our nation’s most sensitive secrets.

On January 23, 2019, Chairman Cummings sent a letter to the White House requesting documents and interviews regarding significant failures in the security clearance process at the White House and the Transition Team. He requested interviews with every member of the White House Security Office, as well as documents “related to a security clearance or White House clearance granted to any White House employee or appointee for whom any White House Security Personnel Office personnel recommended an unfavorable adjudication decision” and documents relating to foreign contacts by Jared Kushner and a number of other White House officials.