Listen as Larry spoke with Robert Deitz, Former General Counsel at the National Security Agency, regarding ‘Reality Winner’ leaking information to ‘resist’ President Trump.
During the interview, O’Connor asked about ‘Reality Winner’s’ political presence on social media:
O’Connor: An employer is going to look at all of your social media…
Deitz: It’s the cheapest background clearance you could get.
O’Connor: So you look at this woman’s social media activity and she was clearly incredibly active and incredibly political. She was clearly not a fan of the Commander in Chief, and yet she was given the go ahead to have this job and have this clearance. Should that have happened?
Deitz: Yeah, you have to be careful there. We do have the first amendment and people are entitled to their political views. In the intelligence community generally, you will see a very wide range from quite conservative to quite liberal. And in my mind, that should have no effect on Miss Winner’s willingness to abide by the promise that she made. You know, she raised her right hand and swore that she would not do this kind of thing.
O’Connor: Well, let me just say, I understand what you’re saying and I agree, I think that people do deserve to have the right to free speech, but that doesn’t mean that they can have whatever job they want. You look at the scale of who they are and what kind of character they have … If she were a member of an active resistance saying, I don’t respect President Trump or President Obama for that matter as my actual President of the United States and he’s illegitimate, maybe she shouldn’t have some sort of top secret clearance.
Deitz: If she did what you’re describing, then the answer to that is probably yes. But simply being active on the left or on the right … I think it’d be very difficult to say that alone prevents you from receiving a security clearance.
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