Apr 23, 2019

White House instructs ex-security clearance official not to testify

White House acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney. Photo: Cheriss May/NurPhoto via Getty Images

White House acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney instructed a former security clearance official not to testify before the House Oversight Committee, according to letters sent to panel chairman Elijah Cummings Monday, and first obtained by ABC News.

The big picture: Former White House Personnel Security Director Carl Kline was to testify before the committee Tuesday, after the panel voted to subpoena him in its White House security clearance investigation.

Details: In the White House letter, Michael Purpura, deputy counsel to President Trump, wrote Kline was instructed not to appear after the committee rejected a White House request for an Office of Counsel of the President representative to attend the deposition.

What they're saying: Kline's lawyer wrote a letter stating they wished to answer the "legitimate legislative questions of this committee, but [were] warned of impending conflict."

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Updated 8 mins ago - Politics & Policy

World coronavirus updates

Data: The Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins; Map: Axios Visuals

There are no COVID-19 patients in hospital in New Zealand, which reported just 21 active cases after days of zero new infections. A top NZ health official said Tuesday he's "confident we have broken the chain of domestic transmission."

By the numbers: Almost 5.5 million people have tested positive for the novel coronavirus as of Tuesday, and more than 2.2 million have recovered. The U.S. has reported the most cases in the world (over 1.6 million from 14.9 million tests).

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Data: The Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins; Map: Andrew Witherspoon/Axios. This graphic includes "probable deaths" that New York City began reporting on April 14.

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