Report: Gorka Was Denied Security Clearance in Failed Hungarian Political Career

Sebastian Gorka, President Trump’s national-security aide known for his ties to far-right fringe groups and past at Breitbart News, had a lackluster political career in Hungary before his rise in Washington, BuzzFeed News reported Wednesday. Gorka was denied a security clearance to work in the Hungarian parliament in 2002 and generally seen as a wannabe in Hungary’s political circles, the report said. He immigrated to the U.S. just two years after a failed mayoral bid in a small Hungarian town, according to the report. Sources interviewed described an embarrassing series of political failures before Gorka rose to become a member of Trump’s team. One member of the Hungarian counterintelligence service was cited in the article dismissing Gorka as a “peddler of snake oil.” Gorka has yet to comment on the report, which raises new questions about his qualifications to work in the White House. Appointed by Trump to focus on counterterrorism, Gorka is accused by at least one Hungarian agent in the report of greatly exaggerating his experience in the field by citing a short stint in a British volunteer force that was described as “a bit of a joke.” The intelligence officer spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to comment on the matter. His account of Gorka’s brief foray into Hungary’s counterintelligence world matched that of former Hungarian Foreign Minister Geza Jeszenszky. Jeszenszky told BuzzFeed he thinks he might have been the one to hire Gorka, but hinted that the U.K.-born Hungarian had proved disappointing. “Some people turned out not to be usable,” Jeszenszky was quoted as saying.