Top-secret Clearance Cliff Notes – What You Need to Know and Why it Matters.
By: Lisa M. Hayes – Confluence Daily is your daily news source for women in the know.
If you’re following kind of media today and in the coming days, (and let’s face it, it’s hard not to), you’re going to be hearing a lot about Jared Kushner and his failure to qualify for a top-secret clearance. Additionally, it’s important to note that Jared Kushner is not the only person in the inner circles at the White House who has been unable to qualify for a top-secret clearance. Many key members of the white house staff have had access to our nations most secret and sensitive information without formal clearance from the FBI.
The word “unprecedented” regarding this administration is getting over-used because almost everything about it is unprecedented. However, make no mistake, this has never been allowed to happen before for the obvious good reasons.
Most of us will never have to apply for a top-secret clearance, and we can be thankful for that. It’s a painstaking process where the FBI combs through your background and your financials with the kind of eye for detail that would make anyone queasy. However, people can make it through that clearance process that don’t have “squeaky clean” records. For example, President Obama’s personal secretary got her clearance even though she admitted to having smoked marijuana for years.
The main reason the FBI doesn’t grant a top-secret clearance is that during the background check they determine that the person in question is vulnerable to extortion or inappropriate foreign influence.That means that there is something in your past, your personal life or your finances that the FBI believes is so scandalous that you would jeopardize the security of the United States to hide.
That is a very simple premise; The FBI takes the duty of those investigations very seriously.
For more than a year, Jared Kushner and other key staff members, whom the FBI has determined are vulnerable to blackmail have had access to the most sensitive classified material, not just in the U.S., but also material relating to other countries.
Chances are, you already knew all that, but take a moment and let it sink in.
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