Kushner’s clearance downgrade could leave him ‘flying blind’

WASHINGTON — White House senior adviser Jared Kushner has lost his access to the nation’s deepest secrets. His credibility as a negotiator may be next.

Kushner’s loss of his top-secret clearance could be particularly problematic in his role overseeing the Trump administration’s efforts to produce Mideast peace.

“I could not have done my job” with a security clearance at Kushner’s level, said Frank Lowenstein, who served as special envoy to the region during Barack Obama’s second term.

Others who have handled the Mideast portfolio say access to highly classified intelligence is essential in a negotiation. Without it, one likened the situation to “fighting with one hand tied behind your back,” another to “flying blind.”

The White House insists Kushner’s job will be unaffected by last week’s downgrade to his security clearance. But the new limits on Donald Trump’s son-inlaw’s access to information may well curtail his work — and raise questions about his longevity in the West Wing.

Separately, the White House announced Wednesday that Communications Director Hope Hicks, one of the president’s most trusted aides, is resigning. The news of her leaving, the latest in a string of notable departures, came the day after she was interviewed for nine hours by the House panel investigating Russian interference in the 2016 election.

Former U.S. and international officials say that even if Kushner stays, his job won’t be the same.

Chris Hill, who was in charge of nuclear negotiations with North Korea during President George W. Bush’s administration, said it would be nearly impossible to be effective without a full clearance.

“You can do the job, but you can’t do it well,” Hill said. “Or rather, you can do the job, but you will do it badly.” When it comes to classified information, Hill said, “you have to know as much as you can because the other side knows as much as they can.”

The downgrade is only the latest clipping of Kushner’s once-sweeping foreign policy role.

During the presidential transition, Kushner, 37, was the principal liaison for more than a dozen foreign governments and world leaders who sought to build relationships with Trump. Last year, he played a significant role organizing the president’s foreign trips to the Middle East and Asia, and made solo trips in his own right. But Kushner has seen his portfolio in the administration shrink steadily over the past year, amid concerns from chief of staff John Kelly and others that he was undermining Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.

On foreign policy, officials said his recent focus has been the U.S.-Mexico relationship as well as the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.