When asked about White House security at her first-in-a-week press conference on Tuesday, Sarah Huckabee Sanders was quick to say that the White House was going to tighten up the ship. But in questioning, she repeatedly denied that it would impact one person in particular—senior advisor, son-in-law, and subject of interest Jared Kushner.
Sanders slapped back every question about Kushner’s continuing to grab up confidential material while on an interim pass. She also brushed off any concerns that perhaps there was a reason why more than a year after the start of an expedited process for a West Wing staffer, Kusher was still waiting on genuine clearance. Two weeks ago, it was discovered that Rob Portman’s final report from the FBI actually arrived months ago, and that he was only continuing on an interim pass because the White House was engaged in a juggling act where every time the FBI reported Portman as a risk, Trump’s team asked for more information, without ever taking away Portman’s clearance. Whether the same thing is underway for Kushner isn’t clear.
What is clear is that Jared is a very special boy.
Those who have been operating with interim access to top secret information since before June are set to see that access halted Friday under a new policy enacted last week by chief of staff John Kelly. Some officials are expected to leave their posts as a result, while others will continue working with reduced — or no — access to classified information.
The White House maintains that Kushner’s work will be unaffected by the change, but won’t explain why.
Clearly, Trump’s son-in-law doesn’t operate by the normal rules. Not when it comes to security. Or nepotism. But he is apparently having a bit of a West Wing tussle.
Jared Kushner, President Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser, is resisting giving up his access to highly classified information, prompting an internal struggle with John F. Kelly, the White House chief of staff, over who should be allowed to see some of the nation’s most sensitive secrets, according to White House officials and others briefed on the matter.
It’s okay. When the Russians bring documents back to the Kremlin, they can just say “I got it from Jared.”
Kelly is among the many cabinet officials to get a “still has confidence” nod in a press conference this week. Which might have meaning except that Sanders, or another Trump surrogate, happily made the same declaration about a long list of Trump’s former staffers, often within hours of their being sent out the door.
But despite Robert Mueller’s apparent interest in Kushner’s billion dollar beg-a-thon with foreign banks, and Kushner’s inability to move any of the many items supposedly on his table so much as a millimeter forward, if anyone walks from this little tug-o-war, it will likely be the former general.
Mr. Kushner’s clearance has afforded him access to closely guarded information, including the presidential daily brief, the intelligence summary Mr. Trump receives every day, but it has not been made permanent, and his background investigation is still pending after 13 months serving in Mr. Trump’s inner circle.
Trump no longer reads the daily intelligence summary, not even the highly illustrated, cartoon version that was ordered up when it was determined that Trump wasn’t prepared for the rigors of ten whole pages of text in a single day. Trump has the brief read to him. But Kushner still gets it. Because he needs it for his critical job of hanging out with Saudi princes and screwing over Qatar.
The one thing that seems to be clear is that there is zero overlap between the demands that Kushner is making to hang onto his clearance, no matter what he’s doing.
Mr. Kushner, frustrated about the security clearance issue and concerned that Mr. Kelly has targeted him personally with the directive, has told colleagues at the White House that he is reluctant to give up his high-level access, the officials said.
And the statements that Sarah Sanders is making about Kushner’s access.
“Nothing that has taken place will affect the valuable work that Jared is doing,” press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Tuesday. “He continues and will continue to be a valued member of the team. He’ll continue to do the important work that he’s been focused on for the last year.”
Unless, that is, what Sanders is saying is that Trump will give Kushner clearance no matter what the FBI, the DOJ, Kelly, or anyone else says. And why not? It’s not as if Kushner had a secret meeting with a bank owned by the Russian mafia, or tried to set up a secret back channel to Moscow.
Kushner should just be glad this isn’t an actual tug-of-war with Kelly. The ex-general may be 67, but there doesn’t seem much doubt about who would win.