Jared Kushner (Finally) Has Full White House Security Clearance
JUST IN: Jared Kushner has been granted his permanent security clearance, according to the @nytimes. @mattapuzzo, who broke the story weighs in. Watch: pic.twitter.com/RDZpEYJNZp
— MSNBC (@MSNBC) May 23, 2018
At long last — after about a year and a half of delays — Jared Kushner has received full White House security clearance.
The New York Times has confirmed that the FBI has concluded their background check into President Donald Trump‘s son-in-law and policy adviser. Even though there have been many questions about Kushner’s foreign contacts and business dealings over the last few months, his lawyer insists that the clearance process wasn’t delayed because of the Russia special counsel investigation.
“With respect to the news about his clearances, as we stated before, his application was properly submitted, reviewed by numerous career officials and underwent the normal process,” said Kushner lawyer Abbe Lowell. “Having completed all of these processes, he’s looking forward to continuing to do the work the president has asked him to do.”
When Trump took office last year, Kushner was granted interim clearance which allowed him to handle classified information while his background check was ongoing. His clearance was suspended in February, however, as the White House faced blowback over the Rob Porter scandal.
Porter was forced to leave the Trump Administration in disgrace when his alleged domestic abuse of multiple women was revealed to the public. The ousted White House staff secretary worked with the same temporary clearance Kushner had at the time, and Kushner reportedly had a dispute with John Kelly when the chief of staff tried to address the scandal by yanking security clearance from anyone who didn’t have full clearance.
Watch above, via MSNBC.
[Image via screengrab]
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