At least one person in the White House felt it was important for House Democrats to learn about how Senior Advisor to the President Jared Kushner and First Daughter and Advisor to the President Ivanka Trump were granted their security clearances. So they leaked, according to Axios.
While we now know that they have them only because President Trump ordered them, bypassing advice of his own officials and the U.S. intelligence community.
The White House this week refused an official request from the House Oversight Committee.
“But the House Oversight Committee in early February had already obtained the leaked documents that detail the entire process, from the spring of 2017 to the spring of 2018, on how both Kushner and Trump were ultimately granted their security clearances,” Axios reports.
“One document, obtained by Axios, provides some details about why Kushner’s security clearance was changed to ‘interim’ in September 2017: ‘Per conversation with WH counsel the clearance was changed to interim Top Secret until we can confirm that the DOJ or someone else actually granted a final clearance. This action was taken out of an abundance of caution because the background investigation has not been completed.'”
What’s important to note is federal intelligence officials and White House officials advised against security clearances being granted to Kushner and Trump, and Americans still don’t know exactly why, or why President Trump saw fit to override those recommendations and order them to be granted.