A Letter From the FBI Addressing Kushner’s Security Clearance Says Only the White House Can Grant Clearance
The White House has been caught in yet another mistruth, and unfortunately, The New York Times appears to have assisted in what looks to some like clever deception. According to the paper of record earlier Wednesday, a source in the White House said Jared Kushner had finally been granted a permanent top secret security clearance, and that decision had been made by career officials at FBI, or so the Times’ report suggested.
“Mr. Kushner’s clearances were approved by career officials after the completion of the F.B.I. background check, and the president was not involved in the process, according to the person briefed on the matter, who spoke on condition of anonymity because clearance decisions are supposed to be secret,” The Times reported late Wednesday afternoon.
So did Kushner’s own attorney.
“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,” Abbe Lowell said Wednesday in a statement.
The Washington Post and NBC News also appeared to suggest Kushner’s clearance was granted by career FBI officials.
U.S. Rep. Don Beyer (D-VA) just shared a 2017 letter from the FBI to Beyer’s Democratic colleague, Rep. Jerrold Nadler of New York. The Bureau wanted to make it clear it did not and does not make decisions on security clearances, not for Kushner or any other White House official.
Rep. Beyer calls the White House and Jared Kushner’s representatives’ claims that the FBI career officials made the decision “false or misleading.” And via Twitter he quotes the FBI, which wrote, “the granting or suspension of Mr. Kushner’s clearance would be the responsibility of the client adjudication entity, in this case, the White House.”
To be clear, The NY Times reported that “the president was not involved in the process.”
So who was?
In what also appears to be breaking news, Beyer tweets that Kushner has “been fined for repeated failure to file ethics disclosures.” He did not elaborate on how much, or if Kushner paid the fine.
The question remains: Who approved Jared Kushner’s top secret security clearance, and was it the president, or was it at his direction?
Image: Official White House Photo by Shealah Craighead via Flickr