They're not jokes, so to leave something like this off of it is no honest mistake.

to get in a blackmail situation...

...whether it be drugs, an undocumented relative, mental health counseling or other foreign contact. I agree it isn't a joke, but if the government were going to start prosecuting folks for falsification on these forms, they will have to go after all the military recruits whose recruiters convinced them to do the exact same thing. Problem for the Trumps though is case paper falsification doesn't seem to be their only alleged crime.

I think the worst that would or really should happen -where this is concerned at this point is a revocation of the clearance. I'm sure it is being reviewed in adjudication.

From 'Secret' which is the lowest all the way up.

I worked for a while for Hughes Aircraft, which, back in the day, was a big government contractor. Technically my job required only a 'secret' clearance, but due to the fact that I would the the System Manager of a large computer installation and would have unlimited access to everything on all of the computers, I was put through a 'Top Secret' clearance investigation.

I remember getting phone calls from previous bosses asking me what was going on and why was the FBI asking about me. And I remember all the Security briefings we had to go to and being lectured about what was reportable and about how they would try and get you to compromise security. It was not an easy road.

Of course, after all that, the only piece of 'Secret' information I was privy to in the whole time I was at Hughes was the combination to the cypher lock on the door to the computer room.

My wife was an army wife in her previous marriage and at one point ended up in Germany, working a Civil Service job for the Army. She had a Top Secret clearance with Code Word clearance as well. She recalls when a new hire nearly got fired. He was in his late 20's when he was hired and needed a Secret clearance. Back when he was 13 he was arrested for sitting on the back of a park bench in a small town down south somewhere. Since he was told that if he stayed out of trouble until he was 18 his records would be sealed. That was the only 'blot on his copybook'. He assumed that since he was a minor and his records had been sealed, he didn't need to declare it on his clearance application.

Turns out that sealed records are no hindrance to a clearance investigation there was a huge dust up about his failure to include the incident. It was touch and go for a bit until the Army/Civil Service finally decided that it was an honest misunderstanding and not an attempt to falsify his record.

These guys take their jobs/investigations really, really seriously.

The trouble to press charges for falsification on every case is far more than it is worth to us. At this point we are more likely to prosecute the investigator who failed to find the information than we are the person who filled out the forms.

but I don't recall there being alphabet soup involved, but it was in those wonderful days before Nixon got in and since he knew he was a crook, he thought the rest of us were, also.

But yeah, mine were easy because I was a kid and there wasn't much to investigate. It makes me angry that these low level mobsters like Manafort are getting them.

Completing the paperwork (transient childhood) but I completed it with all honesty and I will always be somewhat proud of the result. Loved my job at the Labs.

That is INSANELY cool!

It went rapidly down hill after that.

When I first went into the Air Force (1972) I needed a Secret clearance for my first assignment. Filled out all the proper forms, gave the references, etc. The Secret/NAC (National Agency Check) was a breeze for an 18-year old right out of high school, who had ever only had two addresses, and only a few trips to Canada on a Civil Air Patrol cadet exchange program.

Around 6 years later when I required a Top Secret/SBI (Special Background Investigation) for a new assignment the paperwork was a lot more involved. I had to remember building numbers and dorm room numbers that I had occupied for the previous 6 years. Needed more references...and at that level, they really didn't seem to care so much about *those* references, but they asked each of them for additional names of people that knew me...*those* were the ones that they really talked to the most, and not the ones that I had given them.

After getting the clearance, I then had to go through additional checks and training for higher and higher levels of access. Even though I worked in a completely secure building (we went through a guard station on the way into, and out of, work), if I walked down the wrong hallway and didn't have the correct tab attached to my chain alarms went off and I had to wait until someone came to escort me away from the area. Some of the computer rooms in the extremely secure building had a mantrap with a guard that checked each person trying to gain access.

All very serious stuff. I can't imagine that with the level of ineptitude exhibited by these clowns they are still being allowed to have access to our most closely held information. If I had intentionally omitted any relevant information from the forms and interviews I would probably still be sitting in another type of secure facility, where they fed me every day and gave me access to an exercise yard for an hour a day, and where I might be able to actually see some daylight through the bars.

Seriously IMO. For us and others like us it was the difference between a meal ticket and a prison yard ... but more than that it was (is) closely associated with right and wrong...a security clearance is not a frivolous endeavor.