Face prison....

Cummings to ex-White House official: Answer our questions or face prison

By ANDREW DESIDERIO

House Oversight and Reform Committee Chairman Elijah Cummings is threatening fines or even imprisonment for a former White House official if he refuses to satisfactorily answer questions when he appears for a closed-door interview on Wednesday.

“There is no tool in our toolbox that we should not explore,” Cummings (D-Md.) told reporters on Tuesday, warning that he could move to hold former White House Personnel Security Director Carl Kline in contempt of Congress.

The committee is investigating the White House security clearance process, including allegations from a whistleblower that Kline overruled career national security officials in approving security clearance applications that were initially denied.

Some administration officials who applied for clearances were flagged for potential foreign influence risks, according to Tricia Newbold, who has worked at the White House for nearly 20 years under administrations of both parties. Newbold also alleged that Kline retaliated against her when she raised concerns about the clearance process.

The White House has permitted Kline to only answer general questions about the security clearance process, something Cummings said the committee has already been briefed on. White House Counsel Pat Cipollone has also demanded that a lawyer from his office be present during Kline’s transcribed interview. Cummings initially rejected that demand, but said he would allow it for Wednesday’s interview in the interest of fairness.

“I’m going to make it clear — and my staff will make it clear — that if he comes in there tomorrow and if all he wants to talk about is process, which we already know, and does not want to talk about his actions with regard to retaliation and what happened in these cases, then we will move forward to take whatever action we have to take to enforce our subpoena,” Cummings told POLITICO.

“I’m going to make that clear: don’t waste my time,” Cummings added. “We can’t afford to have any stalling.”

Cummings issued a subpoena for Kline to testify about those allegations last week, but the White House urged him to skip the deposition, prompting Cummings to threaten to hold Kline in contempt. The chairman briefly backed off his contempt threat over the weekend when he agreed to a request from the Republican side of the committee for Kline to appear for an interview.

But Kline’s Wednesday appearance is likely the last straw for Cummings.

“We will do everything in our power to enforce our subpoena,” Cummings said. “I refuse to be in a situation where we are unable to use every tool that we have in our toolbox to do that.”

According to Cummings, the White House has not turned over any documents in response to the committee’s requests for information about the security clearance process. The panel began investigating the issue after reports emerged that President Donald Trump ordered his then-chief of staff to issue a security clearance for Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser, Jared Kushner, despite unfavorable recommendations from career national security officials.

The White House has refused to turn over information to Congress on a number of fronts, and the president has personally filed lawsuits in an effort to block congressional subpoenas for his financial records.