The security clearance process has tied the Trump administration in knots — and that is exactly what the bureaucrats running the White House personnel security office intended, said a lawyer who has been battling the office.
The problem is a small group of career bureaucrats holed up in the Old Executive Office Building who turned security reviews into quicksand to ensnare President Trump’s team, said Sean M. Bigley, a federal security clearance lawyer who represents several senior administration officials caught up in the process.
“The security clearance process is being weaponized by anti-Trump bureaucrats who are using it as a tool to not only thwart the president’s agenda but to prevent him from installing appointees who will execute it,” Mr. Bigley told The Washington Times.
“There really is a hostility and there seems to be almost an institutional arrogance in lack of willingness to engage,” said Mr. Bigley. “I literally cannot get a phone call returned, and I am representing senior people in the administration who are just asking for basic answers as to why EOP Security is still sitting on their background investigation a year after it has been completed.”
The problem is a small group of career bureaucrats holed up in the Old Executive Office Building who turned security reviews into quicksand to ensnare President Trump’s team, said Sean M. Bigley, a federal security clearance lawyer who represents several senior administration officials caught up in the process.
“The security clearance process is being weaponized by anti-Trump bureaucrats who are using it as a tool to not only thwart the president’s agenda but to prevent him from installing appointees who will execute it,” Mr. Bigley told The Washington Times.
“There really is a hostility and there seems to be almost an institutional arrogance in lack of willingness to engage,” said Mr. Bigley. “I literally cannot get a phone call returned, and I am representing senior people in the administration who are just asking for basic answers as to why EOP Security is still sitting on their background investigation a year after it has been completed.”
