Kushner loses top security clearance
WASHINGTON — US President Donald Trump’s son-inlaw and close adviser, Jared Kushner, has been downgraded, significantly reducing his access to classified information, two US officials familiar with the matter have said.
Kushner had been operating with an interim clearance at the “top secret/sensitive compartmented information” level for more than a year. Now he is authorized to access information only at the lower “secret” level, according to a White House official and a person familiar with the decision, both of whom spoke on condition of anonymity. Neither source was authorized to discuss the decision publicly.
Tuesday’s news set off rampant speculation among Trump allies that Kushner’s days in the White House might be numbered.
On the same day, the departure of a third Kushner ally in the West Wing in as many months was announced. And the selection of a Kushner ally to serve as Trump’s 2020 campaign manager appeared to suggest the campaign could provide Kushner with a convenient place to land after his White House duties end.
Kushner lost his access to the nation’s deepest secrets after chief of staff John Kelly ordered that White House officials with interim clearances pending since before June 1, be cut off if they hadn’t received permanent clearances by Friday. A White House official confirmed that Kelly’s order has been implemented.
Trump could have reversed Kelly’s decision and offered Kushner a clearance, but deferred to Kelly. Kushner is one of dozens of White House aides who have been working without permanent security clearances for the better part of a year.
His attorney said Kushner’s ability to do his job won’t be affected by any change to his clearance.
Kushner’s portfolio once included the US relationships with some Asian countries and a host of domestic priorities, including infrastructure and trade. But his freewheeling reach in the foreign policy space which was viewed as undermining Secretary of State Rex Tillerson already had been curtailed somewhat under Kelly.
Still, Kushner is reportedly said to have reviewed the highly secret presidential daily brief and has been in the room for some of Trump’s most consequential domestic and foreign policy decisions.
White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters on Tuesday that she would not comment on individual security clearances but called Kushner “a valued member of the team, and he will continue to do the important work that he’s been doing since he started in the administration”.