Lawmakers spent over seven hours on Wednesday grilling Carl Kline.
The former official who oversaw security clearances for the first two years of the Trump administration acknowledged to lawmakers behind closed doors that he had issued clearances over the objections of lower-level staffers in his office — but said he had never done so at the direction of anyone else in the White House.
Kline said that while he had at times overruled the recommendations of subordinates in his office, he had no regrets, according to two people with direct knowledge of his testimony. “I thought about every decision that I’ve made, every call that I’ve made, and I would make every call exactly the same way that I’ve made when I made it,” he told lawmakers, according to a source with direct knowledge.
Democrats say this is a departure from precedent that poses national security risks, and that Kline failed to document his reasoning for granting the clearances in the individual files. “It was clear from the interview that the current White House is willing to accept significantly more national security risks than previous White Houses — in previous Republican and Democratic administrations,” said a senior Democratic aide.
“We can’t talk about individual files, and know they’re upset about it, but we’re right,” said a White House official.
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