The administration is supposed to turn over all relevant docs pertaining to a nominee’s background check. But that didn’t happen, according to a former Senate Armed Services Committee staffer.

“This never came up the first time around [when Shanahan was nominated to be Deputy Defense Secretary in 2017]. Trust me, I’d remember. And the FBI vetting process is thorough. We would routinely get things like a nominee who had tried coke once in the 1980s,” the ex-staffer told The Daily Beast.

“If these domestic issues are as serious as being reported, SASC would have been told,” the ex-staffer added. “And I would know. Which leads me to conclude that this stuff was never reported to the committee. Not sure why that happened, but I see no other explanation.”