“Unprecedented Step” “Breathtaking Lapse in Judgment” “Astonishingly Cavalier Attitude Towards Our Nation’s Most Sensitive Secrets”
Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD), the Ranking Member on the powerful House Oversight Committee, has sent a letter to the head of President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team, Vice President-elect Mike Pence, demanding to know why Trump is trying to grant his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, security clearance.Â
Calling it a “unprecedented step,” a “breathtaking lapse in judgment,” and an “astonishingly cavalier attitude towards our nation’s most sensitive secrets,” Cummings blasts Trump for trying to have Kushner “accompany him to the highly classified Presidential Daily Briefing” Tuesday. It notes that “Mr. Kushner holds no security clearance and has undergone no vetting for access to classified national security information.”
Rep. Cummings calls Kushner “a real estate developer who happens to be married to Mr. Trump’s daughter,” and notes “it is unclear what Mr. Kushner’s ‘need-to-know’ classified information would be.”
The letter demands Pence hand over to Rep. Cummings a list of anyone who currently has security clearances or has applied for security clearances, and a list of anyone who the transition team is even thinking about requesting a security clearance.
On Tuesday MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow (video above) explained why giving Kushner a security clearance and having him attend the Presidential Daily Briefings is disturbing.
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Image by Max Goldberg via Flickr and a CC licenseÂ