Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, is going to have a difficult time achieving Middle East peace without full security clearance.
White House aides working under Top Secret/Sensitive Compartmented Information (SCI)-level clearance, the highest interim level, were informed Friday via memo their clearances would be downgraded to the “Secret” level.
On Tuesday, Jared Kushner joined them. That means he will lose access to many sensitive documents to which he once had complete access.
This shakeup occurs in the wake of controversy surrounding former White House staff secretary Rob Porter when it was revealed Porter, along with dozens of White House aides, were permitted access to top-secret documents without permanent security clearances.
President Trump has the authority to grant his son-in-law full clearance, but according to the aforementioned memo, Trump is leaving that decision to his chief of staff, General John Kelly, who did not sign the memo.
Kushner’s downgrade is a big deal.
According to Bradley Moss, a lawyer specializing in national security law and clearances:
“He [Kushner] cannot see the PDB [president’s daily briefing], not a chance. He no longer has access to a range of intelligence information that ordinarily someone in his position and somebody with his responsibilities would normally be privy to in order to perform their functions.”
Officials in the White House security office will debrief Kushner and others at an event scheduled for Thursday, according to a source with knowledge of the situation.
Moss added:
“They’re going to give him a list, ‘Here’s what you’ve been debriefed from, you’ve been debriefed from this program and that compartment, you no longer have any access to it, and any breach of that would be a serious security violation and a possible criminal issue.’”
General Kelly stated publicly Kushner will continue his work in the White House unhindered.
Kelly said:
“As I told Jared days ago, I have full confidence in his ability to continue performing his duties in his foreign policy portfolio including overseeing our Israeli-Palestinian peace effort and serving as an integral part of our relationship with Mexico.”
What is unclear, though, is whether Kushner will require top secret information to continue performing those assigned duties.
Earlier this month, National Intelligence director Dan Coats told a Senate Intelligence Committee that officials with temporary security clearances should only be granted limited access to sensitive classified information.
He argued:
“Sometimes it is necessary to have some type of preliminary clearance in order to fill a slot, but … access has to be limited in terms of the kinds of information they can be in a position to receive or not receive. It needs to be reformed.”
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Image credit: The Press Democrat
