FRIENDS IN HIGH PLACES

Officials Rejected Jared Kushner’s Top-Secret Security Clearance—but Were Overruled

President’s son-in-law was reportedly one of 30 rejected White House staffers given special dispensation.

Two top White House security specialists rejected Jared Kushner’s application for top-secret clearance because of fears the president’s son-in-law was open to foreign influence—but their concerns were dismissed and overruled by their supervisor, NBC News reports. The network’s sources said Kushner’s background check raised questions about his family business, his connections and contacts with foreign officials, and some of the meetings he held during the presidential campaign. The rejection was overruled by Carl Kline, the director of the personnel security office in the Executive Office of the President—and was reportedly one of at least 30 cases in which he overruled career security experts and approved top secret clearance for Trump officials. Rep. Elijah Cummings, chairman of the House Oversight and Reform Committee, told NBC News: “The system is supposed to be a nonpartisan determination of an individual’s fitness to hold a clearance, not an ad hoc approach that overrules career experts to give the president’s family members access to our nation’s most sensitive secrets.” Cummings said the Kushner case will be part of his committee’s newly announced investigation.

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Victoria Albert