Richard Painter, the ethics lawyer for the President George W. Bush administration, weighed in on the status of White House adviser Jared Kushner’s security clearance on Twitter, saying if the White House doesn’t revoke it, they might as well “give one to Vladimir Putin himself.”
Jared Kushner's security clearance should be revoked. If not, we should just throw in the towel and give one to Vladimir Putin himself
— Richard W. Painter (@RWPUSA) July 16, 2017
The tweet comes as the President’s son-in-law faces increased scrutiny after updating the disclosure portion of his security clearance application, revealing names of 100 foreign officials he’s met with that weren’t previously disclosed.
That includes a meeting Kushner had with Donald Trump Jr., a Kremlin-linked lawyer, a former Soviet Union counterintelligence officer and others after Trump Jr. was promised incriminating information about Hillary Clinton as part of an effort by the Russian government to help President Donald Trump’s campaign.
It’s not the first time the Bush-era attorney has weighed in on developments related to the Trump administration’s dealings with Russia.
Painter has been particularly critical of the Trump Jr. meeting, tweeting about comments Trump lawyer Jay Sekulow made over the weekend, blaming the Secret Service for not preventing the President’s son from meeting with the Russian lawyer.
Sekulow takes his client to a new low if he blames the Secret Service. It wasn't their job to keep Don Jr. from meeting with Russian agents.
— Richard W. Painter (@RWPUSA) July 16, 2017
I suspect that pressure to take away Kushner’s clearance will continue to grow until it is unbearable for the White House.
How/if Drumpfie finally shitcans son-in-law will tell us an awful lot.
I agree with him, however when a former G.W.B. employee speaks on security and safety, I tend to not listen. I don’t know why.
Personally, I’m amazed that that anyone in this administration is qualified to have a security clearance higher than “Confidential”.
Their actual level of security clearance is “Psst—did you hear? Pass it on.”
I just want to repeat something…
Removal of his security clearance is an incredibly low bar to shoot for. The call should be an indictment on the multiple counts of perjury he committed. A pretty good case can also be made that he committed Obstruction of Justice, violated campaign finance laws, and probably engaged in receiving stolen goods (data that was illegally collected is stolen). And that’s just based on his security forms and this one meeting.
Kushner looks to be an interesting one to put under indictment, too, since he has already shown a willingness to toss his family in laws under the bus personally.