Yesterday, CBS News floated an anonymously sourced story claiming that president-elect Donald Trump (hahahaha, I love writing that even though of what will inevitably happen) had requested his gits be given top security clearances. My colleague, Patterico, posted on the story last night.

The story, even if true, is not as nefarious as it was made to sound. Any senior person on the transition team is a) going to have an actual day job to go back to when this is over and b) could very well need high level security clearances just in order to receive briefings from the agencies they are coordinating with for the transition. There is no inherent conflict between being in business and having a top level security clearance, take a walk through a Northrop Grumman plant if you doubt me. A top level clearance is utterly meaningless without being granted access to the information. You can’t just walk into a SCIF and poke around because you have the clearance.

Anyway, the story is as bogus as anything coming out of a news organization that employed Dan Rather.

Despite reports suggesting the contrary, a transition team official says Donald Trump did not request or begin paperwork to have his children gain top-level security clearance, according to a pool report.

The official told the pool of reporters Monday that it wasn’t something he was expecting right now.

John Podesta, himself, weighed in via Politico

Donald Trump’s transition organization refuted a CBS report that the President-elect wants his children to have top-level security clearances.

A transition official said that Trump has not requested for his children that they be granted this type of clearance, nor did he expect that to occur.

“That’s not something I’m expecting right now,” the official said, according to pool reports.

Earlier, Rep. Adam Kinzinger downplayed the notion that this type of clearance would be a big deal.

“There’s a lot of people, by the way, in the country that have top-secret security clearance — basically anybody that does what I do in the military gets it,” Kinzinger (R-Ill.) told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer.

There will plenty of truly evil stuff happening soon enough. Let’s not burn ourselves out over the small stuff, especially when it isn’t true.