President-elect Donald Trump's choice counter terrorism chief Sebastian Gorka, on the White House National Security Council, is raising concerns among security experts over Trump's inability to obtain a security clearance at the start of his first term.
Gorka was forced to depart Seven months later, in August 2017, officials as a low-level White House staffer were informed that he would not pass his background check, sources confirmed to CBS News.
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It is unclear whether past concerns, which led to his security clearance being denied, will hinder him from achieving this new, higher-level position. The job of Deputy Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Counterterrorism is not needed. Senate confirmationBut there was no change in his position in the first Trump administration.
A source close to the Trump transition told CBS News that Gorka currently has an “active security clearance with the U.S. government.” But the transition did not respond to requests to clarify whether Gorka was given the customary temporary clearance that appointees receive as they prepare to assume their government positions and before they undergo a more rigorous FBI background check.
trump He has final authority over who works on his national security team at the White House, and he can overrule recommendations about clearances. Trump transition spokesman Brian Hughes defended Gorka's credentials and told CBS News that “Dr. Gorka has decades of experience working on national security, irregular warfare, and counterterrorism matters.”
Hughes said Gorka “will bring a wealth of knowledge and courage to the National Security Council that will help make America safe again.”
But some former law enforcement and intelligence officials told CBS News they believe Gorka's previous security setbacks should also be a red flag this time.
“Normally when someone is disqualified at some point unless there is a grace period to allow them [enter] Stephen Laycock, who served as executive assistant director of the FBI's intelligence branch until 2021, said, “Let's restart the process to see if the problem can be mitigated by not giving them a position of trust in the government.” Needed.”
John Bolton, who was Trump's third national security adviser during his first term and is now a staunch critic of the former president, has said that Gorka should be subjected to a “full FBI field background check” before assuming the NSC post.
Gorka has been named as Trump's choice for one of the most important jobs at the counterterrorism firm — one that would put him at the center of life-and-death decisions involving elite U.S. forces. This role requires access to some of the most sensitive, compartmented intelligence information in the U.S. government.
In 2017, Trump named Gorka, a longtime acolyte steve bannon A vaguely defined unit of the National Security Council, called the Strategic Initiative Group, is a kind of West Wing think tank. Three sources who worked in the White House said John Kelly, Trump's second chief of staff, was surprised by Gorka's role. At the time, the retired four-star Marine general was focused on imposing discipline on the chaotic White House.
“He saw people like (Steve) Bannon and Gorka hanging around the White House who had an open opportunity for the president,” a former White House official said. Sources told CBS News that when Kelly learned that Gorka was unable to obtain a high-level security clearance for the job, he fired Gorka.
Why Gorka failed his security check at that time has not been disclosed, although the review came shortly after he was caught by the TSA at a security checkpoint carrying a gun into Ronald Reagan National Airport. Gorka faced a weapons misuse charge, which was ultimately dismissed. British-born Gorka, of Hungarian parents, was also not cleared in 2002 to serve on a panel that was investigating the then-Hungarian Prime Minister's past as a member of the Soviet-era Communist secret police. buzzfeed news Reported in 2017.
A firebrand and MAGA warrior, he endeared himself as a White House aide during Trump's first term by appearing on cable TV defending the administration's most controversial “America First” policies, including the so-called “Muslim ban.” Took.
He was investigated for controversial comments about the Judeo-Christian West being in a civilizational conflict against Islam and his alleged ties to right-wing Hungarian nationalists. He has also faced questions about his academic credentials (Gorka received a PhD from a relatively obscure Hungarian university and served as administrative dean at the National Defense University.)
Last month, Gorka was a featured speaker at the MAGA Turning Point USA gathering in Arizona, where he exposed conspiracy theories about last summer's assassination attempt against Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania. Gorka said ominously, “The most charitable thing you can say about it is that it was a failure by design, a failure by design, but we'll get to the bottom of it.”
As NSC counterterrorism chief, at any time, Gorka can negotiate with the President, Pentagon officials or the CIA to help coordinate lethal strikes against suspected terrorists or rescue risky hostages, for example. It will also be within their jurisdiction to conduct policies that require the support of diplomatic partners.
A former Trump counterterrorism official recalled that during Trump's first term, Gorka was involved in efforts to designate Mexican drug cartels as a foreign terrorist organization, and said he hoped Gorka would support that policy. Can try to revive. That redirection would give the US a stronger legal basis for conducting military operations in Mexico. During the previous tenure, it was stopped due to strong opposition from the State Department.
Some Trump critics told CBS News they are concerned that Gorka's withdrawal could signal a less disciplined approach to managing the White House — in which a series of advisers with competing interests could gain unfettered access to the Oval Office — Trump. Reproducing some of the losses of the earlier administration.
“For Trump, process is anathema and discipline is alien,” said Chris Whipple, an author, former “60 Minutes” producer and documentary filmmaker, whose book, “The Gatekeepers,” is a behind-the-scenes look at the White House chiefs. Is study. Staffers from Reagan to Trump. Whipple said, “The only qualification that matters is utmost loyalty.” “And that's why you have people like Seb Gorka running around the Oval Office.”