Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman with Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump in Saudi Arabia in 2017.CreditCreditJonathan Ernst/Reuters Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, could not legitimately pass the evaluation to obtain a top-secret security clearance. We don’t know why Kushner could not get a top-secret clearance. It could have been an unusually high ratio debt to income; his repeated need to revise his security application because he kept failing to include his contact with foreigners; or his request to the Russian ambassador for access to a communications line to the Russians that the CIA or National Security Administration could not monitor.
While we don’t know why Kushner’s application for a top-secret clearance was refused, we know how Trump handled the refusal. Trump overrode the security professionals in the White House who judged Kushner to be a security risk and issued one to him. As President Trump was within his rights to Kushner or anyone else a security clearance, he did not override the CIA security professionals who refused to issue Kushner the highest level security clearance. Ignoring the judgment of security professionals was so unusual, the White House Counsel, Donald F. McGahn and the Chief of Staff, John Kelly, both wrote memos to the file explaining their concerns about granting Kushner a top-secret clearance. Later, when asked whether he had intervened in the process, Trump denied any interference.
Considering Trump’s right to give his son-in-law, why did he lie about it? Perhaps, Trump wanted to cover up something related to Kushner’s security clearance. We can speculate based on some facts. Both Trump and Kushner view the Middle East as a cash cow. They have both obtained funding for projects from wealthy Saudis. Further, Kushner has been given the responsibility of developing a peace plan for the Middle East that requires access to top-secret information. A top-secret security clearance may be the flying carpet that allows Kushner access to parties that can provide both funding and support for a peace plan.
While we don’t know why Kushner’s application for a top-secret clearance was refused, we know how Trump handled the refusal. Trump overrode the security professionals in the White House who judged Kushner to be a security risk and issued one to him. As President Trump was within his rights to Kushner or anyone else a security clearance, he did not override the CIA security professionals who refused to issue Kushner the highest level security clearance. Ignoring the judgment of security professionals was so unusual, the White House Counsel, Donald F. McGahn and the Chief of Staff, John Kelly, both wrote memos to the file explaining their concerns about granting Kushner a top-secret clearance. Later, when asked whether he had intervened in the process, Trump denied any interference.
Considering Trump’s right to give his son-in-law, why did he lie about it? Perhaps, Trump wanted to cover up something related to Kushner’s security clearance. We can speculate based on some facts. Both Trump and Kushner view the Middle East as a cash cow. They have both obtained funding for projects from wealthy Saudis. Further, Kushner has been given the responsibility of developing a peace plan for the Middle East that requires access to top-secret information. A top-secret security clearance may be the flying carpet that allows Kushner access to parties that can provide both funding and support for a peace plan.
| https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/28/us/politics/jared-kushner-security-clearance.html | https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/17/world/middleeast/trumps-business-ties-in-persian-gulf-raise-questions-about-his-allegiances.html  |