Six White House staffers fail FBI background checks

A number of would-be White House staffers were escorted out of the building on Wednesday (15 February) after they failed the FBI's rigorous background checks.

The aides were "walked out of the building by security", a source told Politico, after the group failed the Questionnaire for National Security Positions that the FBI uses to weed out people. Those who pass could come into contact with classified confidential, secret, or top secret information.

The roughly 127-page form, known as a SF86, asks detailed questions going back decades about where potential White House employees have lived, their drug use, where they went to school, character references, and whether they have any foreign friends or government contacts and overseas financial interests.

President Donald Trump's director of scheduling, Caroline Wiles, who is the daughter of his Florida campaign director, is one of those who didn't pass muster, after she resigned before the check was complete, a source told Politico. Wiles will take a job in the Treasury instead, two sources said.

The White House did not respond to a request for confirmation of the number of employees who failed the background check and details behind their dismissal.