Angelo Codevilla explains in a Federalist column why one recent Trump administration controversy signals too much power for the government’s intelligence agencies.
On July 8 The New York Times reported that President Trump’s adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner’s application for a security clearance had failed to report his contact with some Russians. The media found this ominous. I do too, but for a different reason.
The national security agencies of the executive branch are demanding that the president communicate about national security matters only with advisers to whom they issue clearances. Someone in the FBI had slipped Kushner’s questionnaire to the Times. Publication of the story underlined the threat to withdraw the clearance.
Nor is this an idle threat. On February 11, the CIA withdrew the clearance of top National Security Council adviser Robin Townley, telling the press it refused to work with him because he had criticized the agency. Never mind that the president had appointed him. President Trump’s passivity regarding the agencies’ arrogation of power over security clearances amounts to acquiescence to a change from constitutional to bureaucratic government.
Who grants the security clearances necessary for doing official work on foreign affairs or defense? On what basis do they grant them? Does it matter? Most people obtain such clearances through the armed forces or other federal agencies after having answered a host of questions. Then the FBI, CIA, or the Industrial Security Services Company check their answers. Understandably, they assume these very agencies give and withhold such clearances by unchanging, objective criteria, and on their own authority. In fact, these executive agencies act with regard to clearances—as to everything else—as agents of the one and only person to whom the Constitution confides the executive power: The president of the United States.
