Daily Beast reports that Natalie Harp worked at the White House for more than a year without a security clearance. She later filled out the forms and received the clearance in recent months.
Natalie Harp and the White House
Harp holds the titles special assistant to the president and executive assistant to the president. A senior White House official said she received multiple extensions to complete the necessary paperwork, and the process began only after she filled out the SF-86, the form that collects background information and starts a federal background investigation.
That paperwork normally comes with routine security clearance for West Wing staffers. Harp declined multiple times over more than a year to seek it, even as Donald Trump and White House counsel’s office concerns grew and Donald Trump intervened after the delay drew attention inside the White House.
West Wing access
One national security official said Harp’s proximity to Donald Trump in the West Wing and his residence gives her access to the most sensitive information around Trump, more than nearly all other senior White House officials. The same reporting says she has filtered much of the information Trump sees on a daily basis and has become a key gatekeeper since joining his orbit ahead of his 2024 presidential campaign.
Three of the other people who spoke with MS NOW said security concerns about Harp were raised internally by the Secret Service during Trump’s first year back in office for his second term. One person familiar with the matter said, “Harp “plays into the less productive and more troublesome parts of his nature, putting things in front of him that aren’t vetted,”” while another said, “She is just persistent and not realizing that’s what they were trying to do.”
Karoline Leavitt’s statement
Karoline Leavitt said, “Natalie Harp has a security clearance like everyone else, and she is a loyal and hardworking member of President Trump’s team.” The account of Harp working for more than a year without clearance stands alongside that statement, leaving the clearance timeline as the central fact readers have to track.
The immediate question is not whether Harp has the clearance now; she does. It is why the forms were left unfinished for so long, and why pressure from White House staff and Donald Trump itself had to push the process across the finish line only in recent months.
