Trump had sought top-secret security for Kushner: Report
WASHINGTON: US president Donald Trump ordered his officials to grant a top-secret security clearance to his son-in-law and senior advisor Jared Ku sh n er, over ruling concerns raised by intelligence agencies, his own senior aides and the white House counsel, news reports said.
Trump’s order is said to have made his then chief of staff John Kelly so uncomfortable he put it down in an official memo that he was “ordered” to grant Kushner the security clearance that had been dragged for months. Don F McGahn II, then White House counsel, also wrote an internal memo about his own recommendation to not give Ku sh ne rt he top clearance and concerns raised by CIA about Kushner, said The New York Times, which first reported Trump’s intervention.
The president and his eldest daughter and Kushner’s wife Ivanka Trump had claimed Trump had not intervened in the clearance process. The White House refused to comment on the report and a spokesperson has said they don’ t comment on security clearance.
A spokesperson for Kushner’s attorney has said ,“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 thetime.” Kushner’ stop-security clearance was delayed for more than a year after he had joined his father-in-law’s White House as a senior adviser, and his role was once described as the “secretary of everything”.