Kushner’s security clearance reduced
WASHINGTON — The security clearance of White House senior adviser and presidential son-in-law Jared Kushner has been downgraded, significantly reducing his access to classified information, according to two people informed of the decision.
The information includes some of the nation’s most sensitive secrets that Mr. Kushner may need to perform the many jobs President Donald Trump has entrusted to him, from overseeing a Middle East peace process to negotiating foreign trade deals to “serving as an integral part of our relationship with Mexico,” as White House Chief of Staff John Kelly put it last week.
It was Mr. Kelly who last week ordered an overhaul of the White House security clearance process as he came under intense scrutiny for his handling of domestic-abuse allegations against the president’s former staff secretary, who was also working under an interim top-secret clearance.
Mr. 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 speculation among Trump allies that Mr. 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 be Mr. Trump’s 2020 campaign manager appeared to suggest the campaign could provide Mr. Kushner with a convenient place to land after his White House duties end.
Mr. Kushner lost his access to the nation’s deepest secrets after Mr. Kelly ordered that White House officials with interim clearances pending since before June 1, 2017, be cut off if they hadn’t received permanent clearances by last Friday. A White House official confirmed to The Associated Press that Mr. Kelly’s order has been implemented, and that Mr. Kushner was just one of several White House officials who received word from the chief of staff Friday that their status was being downgraded.
Mr. Trump could have reversed Mr. Kelly’s decision and unilaterally offered Mr. Kushner a clearance, but deferred to Mr. Kelly. Mr. 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 told the AP that Mr. Kushner’s ability to do his job won’t be affected by a change to his clearance.
“Those involved in the process again have confirmed that there are dozens of people at Mr. Kushner’s level whose process is delayed, that it is not uncommon for these clearance reviews to take this long in a new administration, and that the current backlogs are now being addressed,” said Peter Mirijanian, a Kushner spokesman.
Mr. Kushner’s portfolio once included the U.S. relationships with China and Japan and a host of domestic priorities, including infrastructure, trade and economic development. 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 Mr. Kelly.
Still, Mr. Kushner is reportedly said to have reviewed the highly secret presidential daily brief and has been in the room for some of Mr. Trump’s most consequential domestic and foreign policy decisions. Because he had an interim clearance, Mr. Kushner was not supposed to be able to see the president’s daily intelligence briefing or have access to other top-secret program information, one administration official said. But the rules were not enforced with regard to the access rules for the president’s son-in-law.
White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters Tuesday that she would not comment on individual security clearances but called Mr. 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.”
The Washington Post reported Tuesday that officials in at least four countries had privately discussed ways they could manipulate Mr. Kushner by taking advantage of his complex business arrangements, financial difficulties and lack of foreign policy experience.
The nations included the United Arab Emirates, China, Israel and Mexico, the Post reported, citing current and former U.S. officials familiar with intelligence reports on the matter. The newspaper said it was unclear if any of those countries had acted on the discussions, but said Mr. Kushner’s contacts with foreign government officials had raised concerns within the White House and were among the reasons Mr. Kushner had not yet been able to obtain a permanent security clearance.
H.R. McMaster, Mr. Trump’s national security adviser, learned that Mr. Kushner had contacts with foreign officials that he did not coordinate through the National Security Council or officially report, according to current and former officials.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., said the report about Mr. Kushner’s business dealings and efforts to influence him “is exactly what the security clearance process is designed to avoid.”
Mr. Kushner’s contacts with foreign officials also have been a part of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation, a former U.S. official told the AP. Mr. Mueller’s team, in its interviews for the ongoing Russia probe, has asked people about the protocols Mr. Kushner used when he set up conversations with foreign leaders.
The Kushner Cos., for example, had attempted to raise money for its struggling 666 Fifth Avenue skyscraper in New York from a large Chinese insurer with ties to the ruling Communist Party. Those talks ended after lawmakers and government ethics experts expressed worry that China could be using a deal to curry favor with the White House. Mr. Kushner stepped down as CEO of his family’s real estate company to join his father-in-law’s administration.
With a top-secret clearance, Mr. Kushner would have had access to information about covert operations and intelligence sources and methods. With a secret clearance, he would still have access to intelligence assessments, but not necessarily the information behind why the U.S. knows what is being shared with him.