Kushner granted security clearance
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s son-inlaw, Jared Kushner, has been granted a security clearance after a lengthy background check, a move that ensures the key White House adviser with a broad international portfolio can have access to some of the country’s most closely held secrets.
Kushner, who serves as a senior adviser on the Middle East and other issues, was among many White House advisers who had been operating without approval for full security clearances. That led to a White House policy overhaul in February that significantly downgraded access to sensitive information for Kushner and other Trump administration officials on interim clearances.
“With respect to the news about his permanent security clearance, as we stated before, his application was properly submitted, reviewed by career officials, and went through the normal process,” Kushner’s lawyer, Abbe Lowell, said in a statement. “Having completed these processes, Mr. Kushner is looking forward to continuing the work the President has asked him to do.”
FBI background checks for security clearances routinely examine an applicant’s financial holdings and foreign contacts. The delay in Kushner’s case was caused by a backlog in the new administration and Kushner’s extensive financial wealth, which required lengthy review, Lowell said.
He said Kushner’s clearance was decided by career officials in the intelligence community and the FBI. “It happened the way it happens for thousands of people,” Lowell said, noting, “There was nobody in the political process that had anything to do with it.”
As the application process was pending, Kushner’s “top secret/sensitive compartmented information” access was downgraded in February when White House Chief of Staff John Kelly ordered that officials with interim clearances be cut off if they hadn’t received permanent clearances. That meant Kushner was able to see information only at the lower “secret” level, but not highly classified information.