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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsWhite House has security problem
BY TINA NGUYEN
JANUARY 25, 2019 11:44 AM
In May, after months working under an interim clearance, Jared Kushners request for a permanent security clearance, which would allow him to see top-secret material, was finally granted. At the time, observers took this as an indication that Donald Trumps son-in-law, whod reportedly attracted Robert Muellers attention for his ties to various foreign entities, was in the clear. On Thursday, however, an NBC News report threw that conclusion into doubt. In fact, two sources familiar with the matter told the outlet, Kushners clearance was only approved because Trumps handpicked director of security personnel overruled two career White House security specialists, who had recommended against Kushner receiving top-secret clearance after seeing the results of his F.B.I. background check.
Kushners case represents a worrisome pattern for the White House. Per NBC, Trumps director of security, Carl Kline, overruled security experts in at least 30 cases, recommending that Trump officials be granted clearances despite troubling information uncovered in their background checks. (The sources noted that the Trump White House attracted many people with untraditional backgrounds who had complicated financial and personal histories, some of which raised red flags.) That number is indeed extraordinary. Prior to the Trump administration, White House security experts had only been overruled once in the past three years. (The White House told NBC, We dont comment on security clearances. A C.I.A. spokesman said the same, and Kushners lawyer, Abbe Lowell, had no comment. Kline, a former Pentagon employee, could not be reached for comment.)
Denying a security clearance to a White House official, noted Daniel Jacobson, a former lawyer in Barack Obamas administration, is not something thats done lightly. It is not normal for the head of the Personal Security Office to ever overrule the career employees who adjudicate clearances, he wrote on Twitter. It takes some pretty bad stuff to be denied a clearance. The fact that there have been thirty denial recommendations of WH staff in the last 1.5 years is itself crazy, before you even get to the overruling part ...
... s The Washington Post reported last year, the presidents son-in-law is viewed by several foreign countriesthe United Arab Emirates, Mexico, China, and Israel among themas a potentially manipulable asset, given his fraught business dealings and his notable lack of political experience. Along with his communications with Russia during the transition, which caught Muellers attention, Kushner helped establish a back channel with the U.A.E. while supporting a blockade against Qatar, and has maintained a close personal friendship with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who reportedly bragged last spring that he had Kushner in his pocket after Kushner allegedly turned over a list of Saudi dissidents being monitored by the U.S. (Kushners team has called this allegation obviously false and ridiculous; shortly after the gruesome death of Jamal Khashoggi, Kushner apparently became a reliable defender of the crown prince within the White House.) ...
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2019/01/jared-kushner-security-clearance
Achilleaze
(15,543 posts)Their submissive adoration of their republican Draft-Dodger-in-Chief has caused them to turn their backs on the USA in favor of their highly compromised party. As this and other stories make plain, the republican White House has established huge security holes that weaken America and America's capacity to defend itself.
Crutchez_CuiBono
(7,725 posts)The Family jewels are being stolen. No telling how many decades of carefully gathered information has been lost. Makes us wide open for attack on SO many levels.
SoCalDem
(103,856 posts)that Russia DOESN'T have
Crutchez_CuiBono
(7,725 posts)They just gave stuff away to be "popular' and do inside "deals" on the backs of the safety of Americans and the billions we've spent on defense. You can't unring the bell once info is out there.
erronis
(15,303 posts)They were doing it for personal greed and self-preservation from the mob capos.
I agree that we can't unring that bell. I wonder if we'll ever know how much info was stolen and to what future cost.
Crutchez_CuiBono
(7,725 posts)give you to sweeten the pot."
JI7
(89,252 posts)sharedvalues
(6,916 posts)The GOP is keeping this traitor in office for tax
cuts, regulatory rollbacks, and pro-corporate judges. Theyve sold out the country to their billionaire donors.
Crutchez_CuiBono
(7,725 posts)watoos
(7,142 posts)who own the GOP. The problem is also the American oligarchs who control our M$M, who control the narrative that enables the Putin/Trump takeover of our country.
The problem is going to take a long time to overcome. Our courts are being packed with right wing Libertarians to the delight of American oligarchs.
sharedvalues
(6,916 posts)Putin infiltrated the GOP with money.
This is why Elizabeth Warren is a good candidate: she has a plan to reduce wealth inequality and so make it harder for billionaires to buy our politics.
llmart
(15,540 posts)From what we've seen, he pretty much surrounds himself with the lowest of the low.
PJMcK
(22,037 posts)The really good attorneys won't work for Trump.
There are several blatant reasons:
- Trump is a known deadbeat who doesn't pay his lawyers
- Trump is a known liar; in the past, his lawyers refused to meet with him alone, only in pairs because Trump will lie
- Trump directs the lawyers and won't follow their counsel
Put simply, who in their right mind would want Giuliani to represent them?
watoos
(7,142 posts)is on the case. This Carl Kline stooge has some explaining to do, under oath. The CIA was shocked that Kushner had been given clearances, they refused to give him the highest clearance, but that doesn't mean that Trump didn't give Kushner the highest security clearance information. Cummings needs to get to work and start doing some weed whacking.
At least 30 people who were not cleared by the FBI have been given security clearances by this Kline guy.
Wilbur Ross is another crook who needs looked at, hell, damn near all of Trump's appointees are crooks.
Sebastian Gorka, Captain Kangaroo should never get security clearances.
Crutchez_CuiBono
(7,725 posts)Crutchez_CuiBono
(7,725 posts)watoos
(7,142 posts)has no business getting classified information. She is worse than Uday and Qusay IMO.
Crutchez_CuiBono
(7,725 posts)The voting machines from China should be banned in the USA. (Along w the ones we already have....CLEAN UP THE ELECTORAL PROCESS and secure America.