By Andrew Goudsward, Jonathan Landay, Erin Banco and Ned Parker
WASHINGTON, Oct 7 (Reuters) – Kurt Olsen, a Justice Department lawyer who has been a leading Trump administration proponent of false claims the 2020 election was stolen, had his DOJ security clearance terminated last month after failing a polygraph test, according to two people familiar with the matter.
The failed polygraph played a role in the decision to take away his Justice Department clearance, the two people said, but it was not clear if other factors also contributed. Reuters is first to report the failed polygraph and its role in the termination of his clearance.
Olsen told Reuters in a statement that he maintains an active security clearance from an agency he did not name and said “any suggestion of a revoked clearance is false.” Olsen said he also had clearance when he was a Navy SEAL during the mid-to-late 1980s.
Olsen last week stepped aside from a criminal investigation examining several prominent adversaries of President Donald Trump. He came to the DOJ after a stint at the White House, where he worked with the Office of the Director of National Intelligence on an effort to reexamine Trump’s discredited claims that the 2020 election had been rigged against him.
Reuters could not independently confirm if Olsen held more than one security clearance or if any of them remain active. Olsen did not address questions about the polygraph test.
Failing a polygraph test does not prove guilt of any specific criminal offense, and its results generally aren’t admissible in most US state and federal courts because they are not completely reliable. Reuters could not establish what Olsen was asked during the polygraph test and why he failed.
Olsen remains at the Justice Department working as a senior counsel in the US Attorney’s Office in Miami.
Nevertheless, the loss of Olsen’s clearance at the Justice Department made it difficult for him to continue working on the Florida-based investigation, according to one of the sources.
The probe involves extensive review of classified material and has been seeking to build a case that law enforcement and intelligence officials working under then-Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden violated Trump’s rights under the US Constitution while investigating ties between his 2016 campaign and Russia and later seizing classified documents from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort.
A Justice Department spokesperson confirmed that Olsen does not currently have an active clearance with the department and said the DOJ could not speak to any prior clearance he may have held.
The White House did not respond to a request for comment.
The episode is another example of the turmoil that has dogged both the Florida investigation and Olsen’s tenure in the US government, during which he has repeatedly sought, often unsuccessfully, to uncover evidence to support Trump’s grievances.
The Justice Department official who had been overseeing the investigation, Joseph diGenova, resigned on September 10 after clashing with Justice Department leadership about investigative strategy and resources.
The New York Times reported last week that Olsen had issues with his security clearance without linking the termination of the clearance to the polygraph test.
CONTESTING THE 2020 ELECTION
The decision to revoke Olsen’s clearance came days before Olsen notified senior officials in the US Attorney’s Office in Miami on September 28 that he wanted off the investigation, according to one of the people. Another person familiar with the situation said Olsen left the probe because he was dissatisfied with directives from Justice Department leadership following diGenova’s resignation.
Olsen told Reuters that “nothing about my security clearance was relevant to my decision to leave” the Florida investigation, but declined to comment on his reasons for departing the probe.
The investigation has so far not resulted in any charges, and attorneys for several people who are under scrutiny have argued that there is no evidence to support a broad conspiracy to target Trump.
Prosecutors have informed John Brennan, who served as CIA director under Obama, that he is a target of the investigation. Olsen led a call with Brennan’s lawyers to discuss a subpoena for grand jury testimony before he left the investigation, according to a court document filed in Brennan’s lawsuit against the Justice Department. Brennan has denied wrongdoing. A lawyer for Brennan declined to comment.
(Reporting by Andrew Goudsward, Jonathan Landay, Erin Banco and Ned Parker; Editing by Michael Learmonth, William Mallard and Deepa Babington)
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