Aide’s exit puts spotlight on long delays for security clearances

WASHINGTON — One week after the 2016 election, Presidentelect Donald Trump tweeted that he was “not trying to get ‘top level security clearance’ for my children,” calling such claims “a typically false news story.” But he said nothing at the time about his son-in-law, Jared Kushner.

Nearly 15 months later, Kushner, now a senior White House adviser with a broad foreign policy portfolio that requires access to some of the intelligence community’s most closely guarded secrets, still has not succeeded in securing a permanent security clearance. The delay has left him operating on an interim status that allows him access to classified material.

Kushner’s status was similar to the status of others in the White House, including Rob Porter, the staff secretary who resigned last week after his two former wives alleged that he physically and emotionally abused them during their marriages.

Porter told White House Counsel Donald McGahn in January 2017 that there could be what he described as false allegations against him, according to two people briefed on the situation. In June, the FBI told McGahn that allegations of domestic abuse had surfaced.

In November, the bureau informed McGahn that Porter was not likely to succeed in getting a permanent clearance, according to one person briefed on the case, but McGahn requested that the FBI complete its investigation and come back to the White House with a final determination about the allegations.

It remains unclear why Kushner’s security clearance has taken so long. He has publicly admitted to making several mistakes on the national security questionnaire required of all prospective White House employees. Kushner’s complicated financial history is also likely to have slowed the background check process.