2016: DHS Official Charged With Beating Wife in Arlington, Virginia

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Hat tip, ARLnow.com: Morning Notes by ARLnow.com March 9, 2018 at 8:45 am

DHS Official Charged With Beating Wife in Arlington — A “senior career official with the Department of Homeland Security who… handles a ‘high volume’ of classified information in his role as an intelligence briefer,” served jail time after a 2016 incident in Arlington in which he was charged with assaulting his wife, breaking two ribs and causing bruising around her neck. {Washington Post}

Politics

DHS official jailed over domestic violence case says he handles ‘high volume’ of classified information

By Elise Viebeck March 8 [e-mail]

A senior career official with the Department of Homeland Security who served jail time for an alleged assault on his wife handles a “high volume” of classified information in his role as an intelligence briefer, according to his online résumé. ... Lawrence Curran was arrested and charged with felony strangulation and misdemeanor assault in Arlington, Va., after a July 2016 episode that left his wife with two broken ribs and substantial bruising around her neck and chest, according to court documents and a medical report from her treatment at Fort Belvoir Community Hospital.

Curran pleaded no contest to the misdemeanor charge and was sentenced to 12 months in jail with nine months suspended; the felony charge was dropped. He served roughly 45 days in jail, remains under a five-year restraining order, and is barred from entering the Coast Guard base in Alameda, Calif., where his now ex-wife is stationed.

Curran, 35, has worked as “section chief” on the DHS secretary’s briefing staff since 2015, according to his LinkedIn profile as it appeared Wednesday morning. In a court filing after his 2016 arrest, he said he held a top-secret security clearance and described himself as a “member of the senior briefing party” at DHS. ... Curran declined to comment and referred all inquiries to DHS at midday Wednesday. His LinkedIn profile was taken offline Wednesday afternoon.
....

Curran’s case, detailed in more than 100 pages of public records obtained by The Washington Post, raises questions about the clearance review process at a time when access to classified information is under heightened scrutiny at top levels of the government, including at the White House.
....

Rachel Weiner and Alice Crites contributed to this report.

Elise Viebeck is an enterprise reporter covering Congress and national politics. She joined The Washington Post in 2015. Follow @eliseviebeck

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