Elijah Cummings COMING For President Secret Agent Man

OH, IT'S ON!

It's going down for real in the House Oversight Committee. Wonkette's Legislative Badass honoree Rep. Elijah Cummings, who has subpoena power now and ain't that a shame, just dropped a giant request for documents on new White House Counsel Pat Cipollone. Who's ready to find out how all these Russian assets in the White House got security clearances? WE SURE ARE!

The Committee on Oversight and Reform is launching an in-depth investigation of the security clearance process at the White House and Transition Team in response to grave breaches of national security at the highest levels of the Trump Administration, including by former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn and others.

Just a little "Welcome to the Team" gift for Cipollone. Don McGahn left some big shoes to fill, but we're sure Covington Catholic's most distinguished alum ( yes, really ) is up for the job. He can start by splaining why the White House has failed to report to Congress about its compliance (or otherwise) with national security clearance requirements in defiance of federal law. 

HOW YOU LIVIN', JARED?

After that, Chairman Cummings has one or two small questions, such as:

• Why didn't you idiots suspend Michael Flynn's clearance when Sally Yates told you he was lying about his contacts with the Russian spy ambassador?

• Jared Kushner repeatedly failed to disclose his contacts with Russian officials, and you chuckleheads still let him see state secrets, WTF?

• Hey, Mike Pence, we Democrats on Oversight asked you like six times why you let Mike Flynn's idiot son Pizzagate Jr. work on the campaign without a clearance, and you fed us some BS about him doing "scheduling." Not gonna fly anymore!

• What's up with all the wifebeaters in your shop? You didn't think that was a security issue? REALLY?

• Care to splain why John Bolton is NSC when he's been hanging out with known Russian spy Maria Butina?

• A year into the Trump Administration, there were 130 people on temporary security clearances in the Executive Office of the President. Are you guys just incompetent, or are you spies?

(Wonkette may be paraphrasing here.)

And after they got through with that, the White House can tell Congress how Sebastian Gorka, a charlatan who got turned down flat for a security clearance, kept his White House job for SEVEN MONTHS.

Last year, when Democrats sent all those requests for information, the White House told them to get bent. But those days are OVER. After a thorough fumigation, they got the Gowdy funk out of the committee workspace, and Elijah Cummings is ready to roll. 

Among the information requested, we are particularly interested to see:

• Documents sufficient to show all individuals for whom the White House granted access to sensitive or classified information while those individuals are or were under investigation by law enforcement authorities or who previously were convicted of crimes;

• All documents related to any assessments done by the White House, FBI, or other agency following the revocation, suspension, or denial of an interim or permanent security clearance to determine the national security risk or potential exposure of national security information;

• All 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 recommended an unfavorable adjudication decision, including the name of each subject; the dates of the recommendation and decision; the reasons for the recommendation against employing or granting a security clearance to the subject; the reasons for the ultimate decision; and the names of all individuals involved in the adjudication and decision process;

• All documents and information provided by Mr. Bolton, General Flynn, Mr. Flynn, Jr., Mr. Gorka, Mr. Kushner, Ms. McFarland, and Mr. Townley, or their associates to the Executive Office of the President relating to their contacts with foreign nationals over the past seven years

Oh, they'll have so much to talk about at those hearings Cummings will be scheduling starting February 11! And it was nice of Cummings to cc Jim Jordan on his demand letter. Now that Jordan's king of the little dogs, we're sure he'll yap up a storm. Elections have consequences. 

Love the smell of functioning government in the morning!

[ Cummings Letter ]

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