Standard Form 86

Well, it comes up because during your, uh, during your, um-

SF86 interview

...

when they're investigating your background, sometimes these things comes up, come up, and it's usually a disqualifier.

And how bad is our recruitment that those were the standards we had to lower?

Yes.

Most of us went through the SF86 process-

Mm

She definitely was granted a temporary one.

when they all were, when they got there on January 20th, but those were supposed to be for six months while they were going through the SF-86 process.

I don't know what she went through.

I do know that, as you both know, security clearances were an issue last time in the Trump presidency too.

Here's a brief rundown of everything that she has circumvented that is usually involved.

There's a background check going back to the age of 18, filling out an SF-86, and then you'll wait a fuckton.

Then face-to-face interviews, anywhere from one to three separate interviews that are not pleasant.

Then you take a counterintelligence polygraph, a lifestyle polygraph, and then you wait a fuckton.

It's illegal and unconstitutional, but it's also harming our national security.

And one other thing about Natalie Harp, she refused to complete what are called the SF-86 security clearance forms for a very long time.

Those are the forms that require her to provide information about her past employment and her debts, any substance use problems, anything that our adversaries could potentially use against us through her.

And the fact that she refused to complete those forms for so long and she has such great access to the present is also equally concerning.

... for lots of the White House staff, but it is sloppy, um, as, as everything else they do, and, and especially for people who are that close to the president all the time.

I mean, she got on the secret plane with him, [laughs] and this is someone who for a year didn't have a security clearance? And again, this is like you get to the White House, you fill out this form, it's the SF-86.

They ask about your entire life.

The FBI interviews you.

Concerns built up inside the White House counsel's office and among security officials, including the Secret Service, until Trump personally stepped in.

Harp finally completed the SF-86 background investigation form in recent months and did ultimately receive her clearance, but a senior White House official confirmed to MSNBC that she'd received multiple extensions on that paperwork, which doesn't exactly square with, quote, "like everyone else." Here's why that matters.

Harp holds a title as special assistant and executive assistant to the president.

She operates unusually close to him, filtering much of the information he sees every day.