Suspended Security Clearance

SECURITY CLEARANCE Q&A
1

Hello, May 2025 my secret clearance was suspended by DHS Personnel Security due to my ex wife (we’ve been divorced since 2021) filing a frivolous protective order against me. On the reasons for the suspension, it states criminal activity and failure to report the protective order. The order was filed civilly by my ex. There has never been any police involvement, nobody was ever questioned or detained by law enforcement, and she filed civilly. To my understanding, you only have to report any interaction with law enforcement, which there were none due to it being filed civilly.

The judge denied/dismissed the protective order citing that it was frivolous and lacking any evidence or merit. I had a video call with a personnel security investigator one month ago.

I’ve emailed personnel security almost weekly but they continue saying they are waiting on final information regarding my case even though I’ve provided everything to mitigate any concern including the judges denial letter stating the petitioner could not meet the burden of proof.

I recently got contacted by an investigator from my specific agency to go over the events and will meet with them in a couple of weeks. I’m not sure if thats what personnel security are waiting on or not. I have been on leave without pay because of my clearance suspension, and have a 6mo old son which i have not been able to enjoy my time as a new father because of this. Any help or info on how this works will be greatly appreciated.

2

I have known a few people who either had their clearance suspended or were not granted a higher level of clearance due to situations like this. In all cases that I heard of, it eventually got cleared up. But it can take time, and it sounds like you are not in a position to be sitting around. Given the current shutdown I’m sure it will take even longer.

The investigator will have to write up notes from your interview and send them forward. Other people may need to be interviewed as well. The next step would probably be some kind of adjudication phase. This will all take time, weeks if not months, if it follows the usual timelines.

If you decide to find work, be sure to check to see if you need to report outside employment. It should not be a problem, but you probably need to inform somebody.

3

It’s just unfortunate that I have the court transcripts and letter from the judge denying it, saying they dont believe the claims my ex made ever happened, and I provide these official documents to personnel security, and it could still take months.

My first meeting was a little over a month ago with a personnel security investigator. My upcoming one is with my current agencies investigator. Not sure if the information gathered from this upcoming one will be shared with personnel security.

The information will be the same regardless since the protective order came as a surprise and I haven’t seen my ex since 2022 and live 3 states away.. This has been going on since May.