White House refuses to release documents relating to Kushner security clearance - Polidicks

https://www.politico.com/story/2019/03/05/jared-kushner-security-clearance-1204984 The top White House lawyer on Tuesday said the Trump administration will refuse to provide Congress with information about senior adviser Jared Kushner’s security clearance, slamming House Democrats for “overly intrusive document requests.” White House Counsel Pat Cipollone said the administration would brief the House Oversight Committee about the White House’s process for granting security clearances, but he balked at the committee’s demand for information specific to Kushner, setting up a potential subpoena fight between the powerful House panel and the White House. "These actions suggest that the Committee is not interested in proper oversight, but rather seeks information that it knows cannot be provided consistent with applicable law,” Cipollone wrote in a letter to Oversight Committee Chairman Elijah Cummings. Cummings said last week that the White House would have one final chance to comply with his requests for documents and witness interviews before issuing subpoenas. He accused the White House of “repeated, significant, and ongoing abuses of the security clearance system.”

"It's treason, then". More serious take: they have to know this is just a delaying action. The HIC is going to subpoena those documents and either those documents will be produced or they're going to put Cipollone behind bars until he feels he's ready to not show contempt to the House. The Democrats, as far as I can see, have lost almost all patience with this - they're really playing with fire over at the White House. If they keep providing this excuse, the HIC might just start subpoenaing everything rather than even asking for it if it suspects the White House is just going to drag its feet as much as possible. From a strategic point of view: Trump and his lawyers must think, then, that this information coming out could be devastating -- because they're basically wasting their 'delay card' on this, a card they can't possibly know how many times they can use against these requests before the HIC stops asking and starts demanding or threatening impeachment if they're not produced.

I'm betting the White House doesn't want to reveal that Kushner is wholly disqualified from even entry-level security clearance by any defineable metric due to his dense international business conflicts and potential Trumpy business background but he was given one because Trump demanded it be done -- which is within his authority as commander-in-chief to do, it must be noted. Welcome to the age of oversight, bitches. Don't flee the sunlight, it only burns demons.

so uh will this guy be held in contempt

Absolutely -- but do they really think this is big enough of a deal that they're willing to lose one of their only strategic cards to try and mitigate harm on anything else that could be demanded of them from the HIC? If so, then this must be one hell of a bomb waiting to go off; it has to be more than just 'he's wholly unqualified'. It has to be something like 'Trump doesn't care that he's qualified and, in fact, admitted that he told him to forge those contacts so they weren't even disqualifying things because they were ordered by the President'.

Panicked weasels are not known for pausing to carefully assess their tactical situation and determine the most successful method of escaping a corner. You can expect them to play the card until it stops working, and then they'll try playing a new card. Which will probably be faking up a controversy to create pretext for a retaliatory investigation against Democrat leadership and significant people/groups (expect Bernie and AOC to get roped into the alleged wrongdoers list for no fucking reason) or finding some new way of abusing procedure to tell Congress to suck itself lol MAGA that they'll abuse until that breaks in the Supreme Court or whatever. Gaslight Obstruct Protect (criminal traitors)

The lawyer involved here should be perfectly calm though; they wouldn't go to jail unless they suspect that they're also legally exposed. If even the lawyer involved here has somehow become wrapped up in this... sheesh.

Republicans used a FOIA request to pull the Security Clearance records on Rep. Abigail Spanberger in 2018

It's not often that I think we should invoke former members of the Republican Party for what they're known for, but it's sad (yet funny) to see the former party of Reagan and the Bushes (41 at least, with 43 witnessing the same Putin-esque issues as 42 and 44) that fought the Soviet-style Communist aggression and is seen for their push to deflate the USSR is now actively gobbling Putin (a former KGB agent) down their throats. I'd like to hear a legitimate defense of Putin. If we don't stomp out any traces of his influence now or Trump gets a second, we will absolutely be dealing with a new, larger version of the Anti-Vaxxers, the Flat-Earthers, Holocaust deniers, in 5 or 10 years as Putin Protectors because Trump will have rooted himself so well it won't even be funny. Kushner shouldn't be serving in the White House. Ivanka shouldn't be serving in the White House. If all of these guys go their lives without serving a day in prison though, I wouldn't be surprised.

As someone who used to work in a field related to this, I can understand why they won't turn those documents over. On the other hand, they absolutely should have because it's painfully obvious some sort of falsification took place to get him his clearance.

if you can subpoena the secretary of the state for four years after she's left office then I think looking into the security measures being taken with current WH staff is perfectly reasonable

Lawfare put out a piece on congressional subpoenas that is probably worth a read: "In theory, Congress could look to its other constitutional tools—like delaying confirmation hearings, refusing to move forward on legislation the president needs to achieve his agenda, withholding support for administration programs with the power of the purse, initiating impeachment proceedings, and perhaps even utilizing arcane arrest powers—to vindicate its prerogatives. It remains to be seen which tools will actually work in the current political environment, and it may be the case that there are fewer actual tools at Congress’s disposal than one may imagine. What programs, after all, might the president care so strongly about that he wouldn’t rather see cut than give up information he doesn’t want to surrender? As to legislation, it is not clear that there are any major policy initiatives from the White House that would require legislative action. Confirmations? On Jan. 6, the president actually said he is in “no hurry” to get his Cabinet members confirmed; “I sort of like ‘acting’ [because] it gives me more flexibility; do you understand that? I like ‘acting.’” Finally, a word about Congress’s arrest powers. The criminal contempt statute permits Congress to certify a contempt citation to the executive branch for the criminal prosecution of the contemnor. But Congress will have a practical problem using this mechanism if the president does not agree with the action. Administrations of both political persuasions have decided that U.S. attorneys are not required to refer congressional contempt charges to a grand jury or prosecute an executive branch official who carries out the president’s instruction to invoke the president’s claim of executive privilege before a committee. That leaves Congress’s inherent contempt power, which means relying on the legislature’s own constitutional authority to detain and jail a contemnor until the individual complies with congressional demands. What does that actually look like? It’s not very pretty—which is why the inherent contempt process has not been used by either body since 1935, when a Herbert Hoover administration official was held briefly in the Willard Hotel. While there is no “Capitol Jail,” the Capitol Police do maintain a holding cell a few blocks away at the Capitol Police Department. At the current moment, the prospect of the House sending the sergeant-at-arms of the Capitol to arrest an administration official would likely not sit well with a public that does not favor physical confrontation in U.S. politics. " My guess is that the Trump administration is going to attempt to stonewall everything. Congress has very little ability itself to enforce the law or to compel the administration to hand over material. Taking the matter to the courts is possible, but prior arguments over subpoenas and executive privilege led to years of delay. Trump's other actions have also whittled away what powers congress has to hold him in check. The power of the purse has been eroded with the emergency declaration, and Senate Republicans are entirely content to ram through seemingly any Trump nominee and are even willing to rewrite the rules in order to do so.

no it's impossible for republicans to give trump congressional oversight, they'll explode.

https://www.axios.com/jared-kushner-ivanka-trump-security-clearance-leak-0a312b92-4a2d-4a70-a7fa-7fb7980d5305.html The documents leaked to the Oversight Committee provide detailed information on the timeline for how Kushner's and Trump's security clearances were approved and who the people were involved in processing and the final decision.