Davis’ strongly disputes the determination ‘and will make an aggressive appeal on this decision as soon as possible’, a person close to her said.
The investigation relates to Davis’ term of office as Consul General of the US Consulate in Istanbul, where she served from August 2016 to August 2019.
In the role, she had a conversation with a reporter, Amberin Zaman, of the Middle East news agency Al-Monitor, about the problem of local staff being harassed and detained by the Turkish authorities, according to the person close to her.
Zaman reported at the time that the Turkish pressure campaign was likely to speed up the US government’s plans to use visa sanctions to stop certain Turkish officials from visiting the US, and said a list of such officials had been drawn up, citing ” sources close to the Donald Trump administration. “
According to the person close to Davis, the information she shared was not only with the knowledge and guidance of her superior, and the information she shared was “not sensitive at all” and was declassified shortly after their discussion.
A spokesman for the US mission at the UN declined to comment, citing its policy of not sharing information on personnel matters. Davis did not comment. Zaman also declined to comment, except that he said, “As a colleague, you probably understand that I would not disclose who I was talking to unless I mentioned them by name.”
Thomas-Greenfield had hoped to formally nominate Davis as chief of staff, but the Diplomatic Security inquiry prevented this from happening: High-level security clearance is needed for the job, given the amount of sensitive national security information passed on by the ambassador word. office.
After Davis recently lost her security clearance, according to Thomas van Greenfield, she continued to work for Thomas-Greenfield, but away from home instead of at the office. She officially stopped working for the ambassador on Tuesday.
According to the person close to Davis, she decided on her own to resign from her job to help Greenfield-Thomas ‘avoid distractions’ and because she ‘did not want to do anything to hurt the ambassador and the mission’.
During her career at the State Department, Davis also served as Vice Consul and Special Assistant to the Ambassador at the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City, worked at the U.S. Mission to NATO, and was Deputy Political Adviser at the U.S. Embassy in Bogota, Colombia. LinkedIn profile, which was removed after POLITICO started reporting this story. Early in her career at Foggy Bottom, she was a special assistant to the then Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
Losing access to classified information can be a devastating career for those working in sensitive positions in the U.S. government, especially for those seeking to reach the senior ranks of the National Security Bureau.
Davis, however, has a few options to reverse Diplomatic Security’s decision. She may appeal to the Assistant Secretary for Diplomatic Security to re-establish.
If the security issues are still unresolved, State Department employees like Davis have thirty days in which to appeal to a three-member body called the Security Appeals Panel. After a trial, the panel makes a final decision, but if she loses her clearance, Davis will still have the chance to reapply for a clearance after a year of waiting.
Meanwhile, Davis plans to return to her full-time job at the Foreign Service Institute while the appeal process unfolds. In fact, she never officially left it, as she was never formally appointed to be the chief of staff of Thomas-Greenfield. No new chief of staff has yet been announced at the US-UN mission, either acting or permanent.
Davis is the second person in a staff profile role of a high-profile nominee in the Biden administration to have recently resigned. Jennifer Van der Heide, who was the chief of staff of Interior Minister Deb Haaland, was removed by the White House last week after planning an indoor party of 50 people that canceled the White House due to concerns that a party that she planned to celebrate Haaland’s celebration. confirmation would become a superspreader event. She remains as a senior counselor at the department.