Report: Trump Aide Lacked Clearance for a Year

The White House is facing questions over whether Natalie Harp, President Trump's executive assistant and one of his closest aides, had access to government secrets without a security clearance.

Harp worked at the White House for a year without the routine clearance, the MS Now network reported Thursday, citing two unnamed sources who said she refused to file the required forms for unknown reasons.

She filled out the paperwork for a federal background investigation and was belatedly granted clearance only after the White House counsel's office raised the issue and Trump himself became involved, according to that report.

The White House says she has a clearance. The Frank has not independently verified the MS Now account.

The White House Response

Press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement: "Natalie Harp has a security clearance like everyone else, and she is a loyal and hardworking member of President Trump's team."

No agency or congressional committee has announced a formal inquiry, and the reasons Harp initially declined to file the forms have not been publicly explained.

Who Is Asking

Norm Eisen, a former White House ethics chief, told The Guardian: "It is shocking that an aide who has potential exposure to the nation's 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." Eisen said the American people deserve answers.

Richard Painter, chief ethics lawyer under George W. Bush, was more measured. All White House staff usually undergo a background investigation, he said, but only some need an additional clearance depending on their access to classified material. "My sense of most of what she's doing has nothing to do with classified information," Painter said.

But he drew a line at travel: "If she is accompanying the president on his trips in Air Force One, in a proximity where she can overhear conversations that could include classified information, she needs to have the security clearance."

David Axelrod, chief strategist to Barack Obama, posted on X that if the story is true and the person closest to the president "has no security clearance and refuses to submit to the process of getting it, it's a deadly serious issue."

David K. Sherman, president of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, called it part of a pattern, noting that Jared Kushner was granted a clearance in Trump's first term only after Trump ordered it over concerns raised by intelligence officials. "Too often, the president has given more flexibility with security clearances to those closest to him," Sherman said.

Why Her Proximity Matters

Harp, 35, is Trump's executive assistant and is rarely away from his side. Last month, when Trump switched aircraft in Turkey after an alleged Iranian assassination threat, Harp was among a small group who accompanied him on a military aircraft while other officials and journalists stayed on a decoy Air Force One.

She first drew national attention as a cancer survivor and Trump supporter who spoke at the 2020 Republican National Convention, joined One America News Network that year, and went to work for Trump in 2022. She has been reported to help write his social media posts and to supply him with printouts of favorable coverage.