To make an incredibly long story short, I was chosen for an internship in a U.S. government agency and on my security clearance application (public trust) I mistakenly listed an internship that I never did (because it was cancelled) because I was using my CV as a blueprint. After realizing at the time of my interview I stupidly doubled down and said that the form was correct, thinking that the investigation for public trust would be more lax. I was scared if I contradicted myself during the interview that I would have been automatically denied.
Naturally, now the investigator is asking me to explain the fact that they can’t verify the internship with the company. I have come clean and explained the mistake and apologized for not sorting this out during the interview. Now im wondering if that’s essentially an automatic rejection for clearance or if there is still a chance to get cleared. Failing that, is there anything i can do to prevent the denied going on my record? Any advice/experience on either front would be greatly appreciated because I am a complete idiot. Thanks in advance.
There is no such thing as an “automatic rejection” . . . The investigator did his job in determining that the information you supplied wasn’t correct. In adjudication, they will have to do their best to determine if you purposefully tried to falsify your employment history or if you made a mistake, tried to cover the mistake and then came clean.
The mistake was a moderately small one. The initial denial of the mistake is a bigger mistake. Eventually coming clean is a positive and gave you a chance to document what happened.
You didn’t make the job of approving you any easier, but I don’t think that you made it impossible. Youth, I assume, is in your favor.
If you are denied, you will have to list the denial on every security application in the future. The only way to avoid that would be to withdraw your file before a decision is made.
My recommendation would be to ride it out. You will get the chance to appeal a denial and can still come out on top of this process.
Mr. Smith . . . A few points that you don’t seem to get: It doesn’t matter that you received glowing reviews from your supervisor. This process doesn’t need to be “fair” as you think of fair. Lying on your resume, in order to receive the pay that you deserve is, of course, lying for the purpose of advancing yourself. Lastly, you have a very odd way of writing that may not reflect what you intend to say although it may also be part of your problem.
At this point, this is not about your ability to do your job. This is about the government’s ability to trust you. Lying on your resume and lying about your location or your work habits certainly makes it look like you can’t be trusted. The fact that you don’t understand this doesn’t make you look better.
You have no “right” to a clearance or a public trust. If you don’t live up to the standards required, you don’t get job. This isn’t for everybody. The only part that needs to be fair is that you have the right to be treated the same as everyone else who has the same history.
Falsifying your resume is an issue for ANY employer. Covering your firing is a serious issue with government work. It indicates that you play loose with rules and loose with the truth. This is not what we want in our government workers.
You have documented your situation poorly here. Your first post here, from three days ago, says that you admitted to your investigator that you falsified your resume. Did you also falsify your SF-85/86? In either case, lying is a problem but if you did on your 85 or 86, you’re not going to clear.
As I reread and parsed
what you have written, it appears that you lied in 2016 and were denied a public trust in 2019. Then, in your response, you lied and said that you didn’t admit to falsifying your resume back in 2016? If this is the case, you do not deserve a public trust. If this is the case, you are, simply, a liar. You might have been able to mitigate the lies from 2016. Time has passed and you could, reasonably, claim that you did this out of ignorance and duress. However, you just doubled down on the lies by denying your past admission. So . . . You think that it’s a positive that you now admit that you lied in 2016? While you lie, today, about what happened back then? How does trading a lie from 2016 for a lie in 2019 mitigate the security concern?
OK . . . When did this happen? Explain the statement. It sounds, to me, like you told your 2019 investigator that you did not admit this during your prior investigation.
Then, we come to this . . .
So . . . You were fired for lying?
Honestly, I’m willing to listen to what you have to say. To listen to your defense. But, at this point, I have to call you out as a liar and tell you that you do not deserve to have any type of clearance or public trust.
You continue to harp on one point and I have addressed THAT one. Time mitigates most errors. Different errors require different amounts of time. I’ve lost count of the lies that you appear to be saying that you told.
I know that you lied about being fired when you had an interview in 2016. You said that you admitted this to THAT investigator but you denied saying it when confronted with the admission in 2019. Did you make this admission in 2016? Did you lie about that in 2019? Did you actually file a false OF-306 and/or SF-85/86?
The whole point is, if you lied before, what’s to stop you from lying again? You need to admit that this is valid concern or you can’t mitigate it. So, what’s your answer? “I fully understand that I made mistakes in the past and those mistakes were big ones. I was concerned about looking for a job while I was out of work and I made a poor decision. I’m older and more mature, I will not make the same mistake again.”
Now, this may not be enough yet. Enough time may not have passed. The government takes these very seriously, justifiably so. You lied on government form that you filled out while requesting that the government trust you. You don’t seem to appreciate the severity of this.
Now . . . If you have lied AGAIN about your admission to your 2016 investigator, you should never have clearance.