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WASHINGTON — White House chief of staff John Kelly said he became aware of problems with security clearances among President Donald Trump’s aides soon after he accepted his job last summer.
He also said that former staff secretary Rob Porter resigned Feb. 6, the same day as a news report about allegations of domestic violence from two ex-wives, contradicting the White House’s previous account that Porter quit the following day.
Kelly said in a briefing for reporters on Friday that within six weeks of joining the White House last summer “it came to my notice that the kind of things I was used to in DOD in terms of the handling of classified material wasn’t up to the standards I had been used to,” using an acronym for the Department of Defense.
Kelly, a retired Marine general, learned then that “a number” of staff did not have permanent security clearances. But he didn’t move until last month, after Porter resigned, to tighten White House clearance procedures and limit access to classified material for people with interim clearances.
More than 30 aides had their clearances reduced from top secret to secret last week after Kelly’s review.
The controversy over Kelly’s handling of Porter and security clearance procedures has shaken confidence in Kelly within the White House and led to speculation he might depart his job.
Porter was among the Trump aides working on an interim clearance, and the White House initially said his background check had not been completed before he quit. But FBI Director Chris Wray has said his agency submitted a background report on Porter to the White House in July, and followed up with additional information in November and earlier this year.