The White House faced fresh questions on Thursday over whether Donald Trump\u2019s closest aide, Natalie Harp, had access to US government secrets without security clearance.<\/p>\n
Harp, who is executive assistant to the US president, worked at the White House for a year without the routine clearance, the MS Now network reported on Thursday<\/a>. She refused to file the relevant forms for unknown reasons, according to two unnamed sources cited by MS Now.<\/p>\n It was only when the White House counsel\u2019s office raised the issue, and when Trump himself became involved, that Harp filled out the paperwork for a federal background investigation and was belatedly granted clearance, according to the report.<\/p>\n Norm Eisen<\/a>, a former White House ethics tsar, said: \u201cIt is shocking that an aide who has potential exposure to the nation\u2019s most sensitive secrets reportedly went without a security clearance for so long. Treating access to confidences as a casual job perk is an outrageous way to handle our national security.\u201d<\/p>\n Eisen, co-founder of Democracy Defenders Action<\/a>, a non-partisan group dedicated to free and fair elections, added: \u201cThis is the continued incompetence of an administration willing to set aside our country\u2019s interests, ignore established protocol, and make the White House vulnerable to intelligence risks in order to appease Trump. The American people deserve answers.\u201d<\/p>\n Harp\u2019s influence has come under close scrutiny this week after her name was invoked by Jon Ossoff, a Democratic US senator for Georgia.<\/p>\n Harp has reportedly sent the US president adoring letters, helps him write social media posts, and has been dubbed \u201cthe human printer\u201d because she supplies him with printouts of favourable coverage.<\/p>\n The MS Now report about her prolonged lack of security clearance drew criticism of the arrangement among former White House officials across the political spectrum.<\/p>\n In response, the White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, said in a statement: \u201cNatalie Harp has a security clearance like everyone else, and she is a loyal and hardworking member of President Trump\u2019s team.\u201d<\/p>\n David Axelrod, who was chief strategist and senior adviser to Barack Obama, posted on X: \u201cIf this story is true, and the person closest to the @POTUS and his thinking on a daily basis has no security clearance and refuses to submit to the process of getting it, it\u2019s a deadly serious issue.\u201d<\/p>\n