President Donald Trump’s relationship with his ever-present aide Natalie Harp has become the subject of a troubling new revelation.
Harp, the president’s 35-year-old executive assistant, went more than a year without seeking the routine security clearance West Wing staffers typically obtain, MS NOW reports, citing two people familiar with the matter.
The Secret Service, the White House counsel’s office, and security officials grew alarmed over Harp’s refusal to obtain the clearance, and Trump eventually intervened personally, sources told the outlet.
Harp, one of the president’s closest aides, only completed the forms needed to launch a formal federal background investigation and received the clearance “in recent months,” according to MS NOW.
The revelation that Harp lacked a security clearance is significant given her seemingly unfettered access to the president and the sensitive information around him.
The Secret Service raised multiple security concerns about Harp internally during Trump’s first year of his second term, both about her access to the president and her failure to obtain a security clearance, according to MS NOW, which spoke to four sources about frustration inside the West Wing over Harp’s proximity to Trump.
One national security official expressed concern that Harp’s role at Trump’s side gives her access to highly sensitive information that few other senior White House officials would be privy to.
Trump’s top staff has made “subtle moves” to curb how much time Harp spends at Trump’s side, but to no avail, one of the sources told MS NOW.
“She is just persistent and not realizing that’s what they were trying to do,” the person said.
The Daily Beast has reached out to the White House and the Secret Service for comment. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt defended Harp, telling MS NOW, “Natalie Harp has a security clearance like everyone else, and she is a loyal and hardworking member of President Trump’s team.”
Harp—who serves as a kind of gatekeeper to the president, vetting what information actually reaches him—received multiple extensions to complete the paperwork for her security clearance, a senior White House official told MS NOW.
West Wing employees typically obtain their security clearance when they first take their positions, filling out a lengthy form covering everything from past residences and financial history to foreign contacts that initiates a federal background investigation, according to MS NOW.
Harp’s relationship with Trump has come under mounting scrutiny after it was revealed that she was among the few aides who accompanied him on a secret flight out of Turkey last month amid an Iranian assassination threat.
But the president’s supporters have erupted in outrage over the attention Harp has gotten. MAGA devotees melted down at CNN on Tuesday, after her estranged brother, Preston Harp, told the network that she had an “unhealthy obsession” with Trump.
Trump previously came under fire over White House staffers working without security clearances during his first term.
The president overrode concerns raised by intelligence officials and the White House’s top lawyer to grant Jared Kushner, his son-in-law who served as a senior advisor in his first term, a top-secret security clearance in 2018, according to The New York Times.
That same year, White House staff secretary Rob Porter was forced to resign from his post after his two former wives accused him of physical abuse. The White House initially said his background check was still underway, but then-FBI Director Christopher Wray contradicted that account, saying the bureau had already provided the White House with its findings, including the abuse allegations.
