CaptainCanada wrote:
rick_pcfl wrote:
I cannot tolerate men who abuse their wives. But do you want to live in a society where men are fired as soon as an allegation comes out? I mean that is kind of happening now, but I would kind of prefer that an investigation take place first. Wouldn't you?
I would hope that they had a discussion with him when they first surfaced and made a decision to let the investigation proceed. Or would you prefer that we always take the word of accusers without any investigation before ruining someone's career?
Well there was clearly enough smoke to make the FBI stop the security clearance. So yes, he should have been dismissed. And having Hope Hicks, who is romantically involved with said abuser, draft Kelly’s initial statement is just stupid.
So, a couple of things to note. It appears that Mr. Porter did have a clearance. What he had was an interim clearance, which most people get when they're in the process of getting a new clearance, pending the background investigation and receipt of a "final clearance." The issue here is that Mr. Porter continued to work under an interim clearance for so long.
Second, the FBI didn't necessarily hold up granting a final clearance because there was "smoke" to the allegations. It appears that they felt the allegations were items that could be used to blackmail him, which put him in a potentially dangerous position. That doesn't imply that the charges were accurate or proven, only that they could be used against Mr. Porter in attempts to get him to divulge classified information. It doesn't appear, as of yet, that the FBI or any law enforcement agency has found the allegations serious or credible enough to open a criminal investigation.
I'm not arguing that Mr. Porter did or did not do the things his ex-wives allege he did, just correcting a couple of things that get lost in translation when the media (who generally don't have a clue about how these processes work) report on this sort of thing.
Slowguy
(insert pithy phrase here...)