Trump’s security clearance meddling is a bigger scandal than Benghazi or Emailgate

When you consider the many details about the Trump family finances and entanglements that have been kept secret from the American people, the potential for conflicts of interest is extremely troubling and dangerous. There are legitimate questions about what people are doing with state secrets and why. Are some of them putting their financial interests ahead of our national security? What is the motivation behind the president’s decision to overrule his own security and intelligence experts?

This is why the Cummings investigation is so important. It’s not just that 25 or so people received clearances who probably shouldn’t have. We need to know why their clearances were denied or rejected.

I have no doubt that if this had happened under the Obama administration, Republicans would be holding hearings, issuing subpoenas, and demanding accountability from the Democratic White House. It’s telling that the Republicans’ default position, made clear in a memo this week, is to try to undermine Newbold. She testified that “only 4-5 of her unfavorable 25 adjudications were for ‘very serious reasons,’ ” they noted. Republicans are once again shifting the goal posts. They’ve gone from “lock her up” to “only 4-5” potentially “very serious” security risks and “Ms. Newbold’s concerns seem overblown.”