Security clearance adjudication is the DoD administrative process for determining whether an individual should be granted, maintained, denied, or revoked access to classified national security information.
Key Bodies
- Consolidated Adjudications Facility (CAF): The DoD component responsible for making initial clearance decisions; applies the 13 adjudicative standards under DoDM 5200.02.
- Personnel Security Appeals Board (PSAB): The appellate body for contesting CAF revocation decisions; reverses CAF decisions roughly one-third of the time.
UAP Whistleblower Context
The DoD OIG’s January 2026 report (see src-dod-ig-uap-whistleblower-reprisal-2026-01) documents a UAP-related clearance case — widely assessed to involve david-grusch — that illustrates how the CAF/PSAB process operates in parallel with, but remains formally separate from, Inspector General whistleblower reprisal proceedings:
- August 2022: CAF issues a Letter of Intent to revoke access.
- December 2022: Final revocation signed and emailed.
- January 10, 2023: PSAB unanimously votes to reinstate TS/SCI access, one day after the hearing, citing “compelling” mitigation.
- February 2025: DoD OIG closes the reprisal investigation, finding no causal link between the protected disclosures and the revocation.
Internal CAF communications showed officials explicitly hesitated over optics, issuing a “stand down” directive before mailing the revocation letter. The OIG found this did not affect the substantive merits of the adjudication.