Trump hand seen in Kushner clearance

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump last year ordered officials to grant top-secret security clearance to his son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner, according to a report published Thursday by The New York Times.

Kushner was granted the high-level clearance in May after a lengthy background check.

The Times, citing anonymous sources, said Trump demanded Kushner’s clearance despite the concerns of intelligence officials, then Chief of Staff John Kelly and then-White House counsel Don McGahn.

The newspaper said Kelly wrote in an internal memo that he had been “ordered” to give top-secret clearance to Kushner. McGahn wrote a memo in which he advised against such clearance.

Peter Mirijanian, a spokesman for Kushner lawyer Abbe Lowell, said in a statement Thursday: “In 2018, White House and security clearance officials affirmed that Mr. Kushner’s security clearance was handled in the regular process with no pressure from anyone. That was conveyed to the media at the time, and new stories, if accurate, do not change what was affirmed at the time.”

Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform, said Thursday that his committee has launched an investigation into the security clearance process, and requested documents and interviews relating to Kushner’s clearance.

Trump told Times reporters in January that he “was never involved” with Kushner’s security clearance.