The White House indicated late Friday it would make former security clearance boss Carl Kline available to interview with the House Oversight Committee on May 1, but only if his testimony is limited to “policies and practices” of the security clearance process, a restriction that Democrats have previously complained is too narrow.
“[W]e understand the scope of the interview will be limited to White House personnel security policies and practices, consistent with our prior offers for Mr. Kline’s voluntary cooperation with the Committee,” White House counsel Pat Cipollone wrote in the letter to the committee’s top Republican, Rep. Jim Jordan.
The offer, pitched in response to a request from Jordan to avert an escalating confrontation between the White House and Congress, may not satisfy Democratic demands for testimony on some of the most controversial security clearance decisions made by the Trump White House. But it’s the first move toward accommodation by an administration that has openly rejected submitting to most Democratic oversight requests. In addition, if lawmakers opt to interview Kline and find his answers overly restricted, the committee could still seek to depose him, according to a source familiar with the process.
Republicans on the panel say Cummings’ decision to subpoena Kline created an unnecessary conflict with the White House over his testimony and ultimately stymied a voluntary interview that would have been the first step in the committee’s information-gathering efforts. “We are pleased that Mr. Kline is coming in for an interview that we are hopeful will provide any necessary answers related to the security clearance process,” said a Republican committee source.
Democrats have been demanding Kline’s testimony following a whistleblower’s complaint that Kline overruled career staffers to approve high-level security clearances for top White House personnel, even though their applications had been flagged as national security risks. But until late Friday, the White House had ordered Kline to refuse to appear, and Kline’s attorney Robert Driscoll indicated that Kline intended to defer to his employer’s wishes.
Cummings aides did not respond to requests for comment but it’s unlikely he’ll accept the terms offered by the White House. In addition to restricting Kline’s testimony to general “policies and practices” of the security clearance office, Cipollone also indicated he expected to have a lawyer on his team present in the room, a demand that Democrats have not agreed to and that they’ve argued conflicts with the committee’s past practice.
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In GOP gambit, White House OKs 'limited' testimony for ex-security clearance chiefhttps://t.co/8YKW1ABaG9
— POLITICO (@politico) April 27, 2019
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