Jared Kushner, Donald Trump’s son-in-law, has had top secret security clearance since January when Trump took office. In order to get top secret clearance, he had to list all meetings with foreign contacts over the last seven years. In early April it was discovered Jared Kushner left that portion of his background form blank. From CNN in April:
Kushner, whom the President has given an expanded portfolio that includes high-level foreign policy matters, is required to complete a lengthy form with specifics about all of his foreign contacts and connections over the last seven years. Kushner's initial form was submitted in error, according to his attorney.
When Kushner first submitted his forms to the FBI, he left the section about foreign contacts blank -- despite the fact that he had met with a large number of foreign emissaries and leaders once Donald Trump became the president-elect and he became the point man for international contacts for the incoming Trump administration.
His attorney, Jamie Gorelick, said the "premature draft" was "mistakenly submitted" on January 18 without the proper review.
How does one leave the section intentionally blank, call it a “draft” document and still somehow get cleared for top secret security for seven full months now? In April, Democrats sent a letter to then FBI Director James Comey asking for Kushner's security clearance to be suspended pending an investigation and noted lying on the SF-86 form is a “felony, punishable by up to five years in prison.”
Three and a half months later, Kushner has updated his SF-86 form, not once, not twice, but three times. He’s suddenly recalled more than 100 foreign contacts:
Also under scrutiny is how forthcoming Mr. Kushner was with his father-in-law about the nature of the June meeting. He met with Mr. Trump to discuss the issue, according to advisers to the White House, around the time he updated his federal disclosure form to include Ms. Veselnitskaya’s name on a list of foreign contacts that Mr. Kushner was required to submit to the F.B.I. to obtain a security clearance.
Mr. Kushner supplemented the list of foreign contacts three times, adding more than 100 names, people close to him said.
It is perplexing he was granted top secret clearance at all given how incomplete the initial form was when he submitted it. And now we know he privately, covertly met with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak, Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya and Rinat Akhmetshin, who Sen. Chuck Grassley described as ”a former Russian military intelligence officer who acts as an “unregistered agent for Russian interests and apparently has ties to Russian intelligence.”
When you add it all up, it is extremely troubling Jared Kushner still has top secret clearance. There is a growing effort to have his clearance pulled. On Wednesday, Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) did not pull any punches when it came to Kushner and security clearance. He wants Kushner’s clearance yanked:
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