Trump advisor and son-in-law Jared Kushner has lost the highest-level government security clearance for sensitive information, NBC News confirmed Tuesday.
Kushner and other White House staffers who had the highest-level interim clearance found out Friday that it would get downgraded, NBC said. Kushner has not yet gotten cleared for a full clearance amid a prolonged background investigation, yet he worked on sensitive topics and previously saw the highly-classified president's daily brief.
Politico first reported the news Tuesday.
In a statement, a Kushner spokesperson said the the White House's clearance policy will not affect Kushner's work, adding that he did "more than what is expected of him" in the clearance process. "No concerns were raised" about the White House aide's application, the spokesperson said.
President Donald Trump could have given his son-in-law a full clearance but let chief of staff John Kelly decide.
"I will let General Kelly make that decision, and he's going to do what's right for the country, and I have no doubt he'll make the right decision," Trump said on Friday.
Scrutiny focused on the clearance process following domestic abuse allegations against former White House staff secretary Rob Porter, who also had an interim clearance. Kelly vowed changes amid questions about his role in Porter's hiring.
Last week, CNN, citing sources, reported that Kushner was unable to receive full clearance partly because of special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election. Kushner is reportedly one of the key figures in the probe, which is also examining links between the Kremlin and the Trump campaign.
The White House declined to comment on security clearances.
10dollarbagel on February 27th, 2018 at 22:19 UTC »
So we just had some schmuck whose only accreditation was fucking the president's daughter get a top level security clearance for a whole god damned year before deciding "wait this guy lied dozens of times on his background check. Also he's completely unqualified anyway, what the hell is he doing here?" and kicking him out.
Only the best people, folks. Everybody's talking about it. The bigliest.
imcrowning on February 27th, 2018 at 21:06 UTC »
"Thats funny, this card worked yesterday."
mrdilldozer on February 27th, 2018 at 20:58 UTC »
Wait how is he supposed to solve all conflict in the middle east now?