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[AnNahar] Some 25 White House officials including top advisors of President Donald Trump were given security clearances despite staff recommendations against it, a whistleblower has told Congress.

House Oversight Committee Chairman Elijah Cummings said in a letter Monday that White House security official Tricia Newbold detailed to his panel "grave breaches of national security at the highest levels of the Trump Administration."

Had any been members of the Communist Party or converted to Islam?

None of the 25 were named, but in his letter, addressed to White House counsel Pat Cipollone, Cummings requested information relating to clearances for National Security Advisor John Bolton, former national security advisor Michael Flynn, Trump daughter Ivanka Trump and son-in-law Jared Kushner, and several other top security officials.

How many on that list had previously held security clearances, and therefore ought to have been rubber stamped?

He also said he would subpoena Carl Kline, Newbold's former superior at the White House Personnel Security Office, to testify to the committee on the clearances, along with other officials.

Newbold told the committee that the Personnel Security Office recommended against security clearances -- which allow access to top secret materials -- for the 25, Cummings said.

Two of them were top-level officials in national security.

Newbold told the committee that the recommendations for denial were for serious questions involving foreign influence, conflicts of interest, personal conduct issues, financial problems, drug use, and criminal acts.

But the 18-year veteran of the White House said they were pressured to change their recommendations and overruled by Kline and higher-ups.

An abnormally large number of staffers had interim security clearances for long periods, including several for the highest level of secrecy classification that granted them access to "sensitive compartmented information," or SCI.