Tricia Newbold ( ''née'' Picard) is an American career government employee who has worked in the

Executive Office of the President of the United States The Executive Office of the President (EOP) comprises the offices and agencies that support the work of the president at the center of the executive branch of the United States federal government. The EOP consists of several offices and agenc ...

since 2000. She works as a manager in the

White House The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. It is located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., and has been the residence of every U.S. president since John Adams in 1800. ...

's Personnel Security Office.

Personal life

Formerly known as Tricia Picard, Newbold is from Madawaska,

Maine Maine () is a state in the New England and Northeastern regions of the United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Quebec to the northeast and north ...

, where she grew up and graduated from

Madawaska High School Madawaska Middle/High School is a public secondary school, serving grades 7 through 12, located in Madawaska, Maine, United States. The school serves students in from Madawaska, Saint David, and Grand Isle. The building also hosts the area's ...

in 1998. She was born with a rare form of

dwarfism Dwarfism is a condition wherein an organism is exceptionally small, and mostly occurs in the animal kingdom. In humans, it is sometimes defined as an adult height of less than , regardless of sex; the average adult height among people with dw ...

Career

Newbold has worked in the White House during four presidential administrations, beginning with the

Clinton administration Bill Clinton's tenure as the 42nd president of the United States began with his first inauguration on January 20, 1993, and ended on January 20, 2001. Clinton, a Democrat from Arkansas, took office following a decisive election victory over Re ...

in 2000. She eventually took on the role of

adjudication Adjudication is the legal process by which an arbiter or judge reviews evidence and argumentation, including legal reasoning set forth by opposing parties or litigants, to come to a decision which determines rights and obligations between the ...

s manager in the White House, in which capacity she has had to determine whether certain presidential employees should be granted

security clearance A security clearance is a status granted to individuals allowing them access to classified information (state or organizational secrets) or to restricted areas, after completion of a thorough background check. The term "security clearance" is ...

s. In addition to the Clinton and Trump administrations, she also worked under Presidents

George W. Bush George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Republican Party, Bush family, and son of the 41st president George H. W. Bush, he ...

and

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the U ...

Security clearance controversy

In January 2019, Newbold was suspended for fourteen days without pay for refusing to cooperate with procedures implemented by her supervisor. She has alleged that this suspension was made in retaliation for attempting to express her concerns about the granting of security clearances by her office. In March 2019, Newbold spoke privately to the

House Oversight Committee The Committee on Oversight and Reform is the main investigative committee of the United States House of Representatives. The committee's broad jurisdiction and legislative authority make it one of the most influential and powerful panels in the ...

, claiming that at least 25

Trump administration Donald Trump's tenure as the List of presidents of the United States, 45th president of the United States began with Inauguration of Donald Trump, his inauguration on January 20, 2017, and ended on January 20, 2021. Trump, a Republican Party ...

officials were granted security clearances over the objections of career staffers. Newbold also asserted that some of these officials had previously had their applications rejected for "disqualifying issues", only for those rejections to be overturned with inadequate explanation. On April 1, 2019,

Elijah Cummings Elijah Eugene Cummings (January 18, 1951October 17, 2019) was an American politician and civil rights advocate who served in the United States House of Representatives for from 1996 until his death in 2019, when he was succeeded by his predecess ...

, the Committee chair, released a letter detailing Newbold's accusations. In a subsequent interview with

NBC News NBC News is the news division of the American broadcast television network NBC. The division operates under NBCUniversal Television and Streaming, a division of NBCUniversal, which is, in turn, a subsidiary of Comcast. The news division's var ...

, she accused her former boss, Carl Kline, of embarrassing her by moving files to high locations where she could not reach them. Two sources confirmed the allegation to NBC. She had previously filed a complaint against Kline with the

Equal Employment Opportunity Commission The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is a federal agency that was established via the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to administer and enforce civil rights laws against workplace discrimination. The EEOC investigates discrimination ...

for this alleged behavior. According to

The Atlantic ''The Atlantic'' is an American magazine and multi-platform publisher. It features articles in the fields of politics, foreign affairs, business and the economy, culture and the arts, technology, and science. It was founded in 1857 in Boston, ...

, Newbold "set an important mark when she became the first official currently serving in Donald Trump’s White House to take accusations of wrongdoing to Congress—and to put her name publicly behind them."

References

Living people People from Madawaska, Maine Trump administration personnel White House staff Clinton administration personnel George W. Bush administration personnel Obama administration personnel American whistleblowers People with dwarfism Year of birth missing (living people) {{DEFAULTSORT:Newbold, Tricia