Trump’s decision so troubled John Kelly that he wrote a contemporaneous internal memo about how he had been ‘ordered’ to give Kushner the top-secret clearance
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump ordered his chief of staff to grant his son-in-law and senior adviser, Jared Kushner, a top-secret security clearance last year, overruling concerns flagged by intelligence officials and the White House’s top lawyer, four people briefed on the matter said.
Kushner’s lawyer, Abbe Lowell, also said that at the time the clearance was granted last year his client went through a standard process. Ivanka Trump, the president’s eldest daughter and Kushner’s wife, said the same thing three weeks ago. It is not known precisely what factors led to the problems with Kushner’s security clearance. Officials had raised questions about his own and his family’s real estate businesses’ ties to foreign governments and investors, and about initially unreported contacts he had with foreigners. The issue also generated criticism of Trump for having two family members serve in official capacities in the West Wing.
Donald Trump In Kushner’s case, personnel division officials were divided about whether to grant him a top-secret clearance. During the 2016 presidential campaign, Kushner was part of a group that met with a Russian lawyer who went to Trump Tower claiming to have political “dirt” on Hillary Clinton. And during the presidential transition, Kushner had a meeting with the Russian ambassador at the time, Sergey Kislyak, and the head of a Russian state-owned bank. When he applied for a security clearance, he did not reveal those meetings.
That affected both Kushner and Ivanka Trump, who told friends and advisers that they believed Kelly and McGahn were targeting them for petty reasons instead of legitimate concerns flagged by officials.
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