NYT: Trump Ordered Top-Secret Clearance For Kushner Despite Others’ Concerns

WASHINGTON, DC - DECEMBER 21 : Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, watches as Senior advisor Jared Kushner speaks with President Donald J. Trump during a signing ceremony for S. 756, First Step Act and H.R. 6964, Juvenile J... WASHINGTON, DC - DECEMBER 21 : Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, watches as Senior advisor Jared Kushner speaks with President Donald J. Trump during a signing ceremony for S. 756, First Step Act and H.R. 6964, Juvenile Justice Reform Act in the Oval Office at the White House on Friday, Dec. 21, 2018 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post via Getty Images) MORE LESS
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President Donald Trump personally ordered that his son-in-law Jared Kushner be granted a top-secret security clearance last year, The New York Times reported Thursday, citing four unnamed “people briefed on the matter.”

The report contradicted claims by Trump himselfKushner’s lawyer, Ivanka Trump and others that Kushner had received the clearance as a result of the normal process, and without Trump’s help.

Though the President does have the authority to grant clearances, he did so in this case despite concerns raised by two senior White House officials at the time, chief of staff John Kelly and White House counsel Don McGahn, the Times reported.

The Times reported on a memo McGahn wrote at the time that outlined concerns about the clearance, “including [those raised] by the CIA,” in the Times’ words. And Kelly wrote a memo detailing how he’d been “ordered” to grant the clearance, the Times reported.

The Times reported that, in May of last year, Trump ordered Kelly to arrange a top-secret clearance for Kushner the day after McGahn advised against it.

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told the Times: “We don’t comment on security clearances.” A spokesperson for Kushner’s lawyer said that in 2018, “White House and security clearance officials affirmed that Mr. Kushner’s security clearance was handled in the regular process.”

Per the Times, Kushner’s personnel file says he was granted an interim top-secret clearance in September 2017, only to have the clearance demoted to simply “secret” clearance in February 2018, in the wake of revelations that allegations of domestic abuse against former White House staff secretary Rob Porter had come up during the background check process for his security clearance.

This post has been updated.

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Notable Replies

  1. All we need is to couple this with conclusive evidence of Kushner selling US intelligence to foreign governments and that should constitute an impeachable offense for Trump and an espionage charge for Kush. Win-Win!

  2. Clearances granted over the objections of the intelligence community to a guy who was involved in trying to push nuclear power stuff to Saudi Arabia, and who is known to have tried to set up a backdoor communications line to Russia and helped the Saudis with the Khashoggi murder blowback…yeah, this seems like something that should be investigated. I really can’t wait to see Kushner squeal in front of a House investigative panel over the things he’s been doing for the Trump administration.

  3. Avatar for nemo nemo says:
  4. I have no problem with country-selling Kushner and Ivanka getting the Julius and Ethel Rosenberg treatment.

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