Jared Kushner updated his security form, suddenly remembered more than 100 foreign contacts

[babylonsister]

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2017/7/13/1680282/-Jared-Kushner-updated-his-security-form-suddenly-remembered-100-foreign-contacts-during-campaign?detail=facebook

Jared Kushner updated his security form, suddenly remembered more than 100 foreign contacts
By Jen Hayden
Thursday Jul 13, 2017 · 9:39 AM EST


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:

Link to tweet

[yardwork]

1. But Hillary's emails....

[aquamarina]

2. and BENGHAZIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII

[tblue37]

32. Steve "cantaloupe calves" King has actually threatened recently that the GOP will investigate

Hillary's emails again if the press and investigators don't back off from the Russia investigation.

[CanonRay]

3. I simply do not understand how they are able to get away with this.

I filled out these forms, and if I had "forgot" a contact with a foreign government, my ass would have been out the door in a nanosecond.

[yardwork]

4. Yeah. The media should, like, talk about this, you think?

[Scarsdale]

24. I went through

more scrutiny when I applied for marriage to a US serviceman!!I had a physical at the base, filled out questionaires about me and my family. Three months later, permission to marry came through. Then, when he rotated to the states (Air Force) I did not have a visa, so could not join him. I had to have another physical, another questionaire before a visa was issued. This was in the UK!! Now Russian MAFIA members are flying back and forth like flies.

[rickford66]

34. I missed out on a job because my wife was British.

I thought they were our allies. Maybe if she was Russian ?

[struggle4progress]

5. Kushner's' clearance

BY GRAHAM LANKTREE ON 7/13/17 AT 9:24 AM

... security experts are calling for President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and senior advisor Jared Kushner's security clearance to be revoked ... Kushner withheld repeated meetings with Kremlin-linked Russians from his initial top-secret security clearance application.

Kushner has been operating on an “interim” security clearance ...

“You want to make sure you get the information right the first time” on the forms, Parakilas said — “especially where it concerns potential vulnerability to blackmail and potential counterintelligence issues” ...

Given the nature of Kushner’s meeting with the Russian lawyer last June, “it stretches credibility to say he simply forgot it when he initially filled out his forms,” said .. Norm Eisen ...

http://www.newsweek.com/trump-jared-kushner-russia-security-clearance-ivanka-kremlin-blackmail-putin-635954

[NastyRiffraff]

11. As Lawrence O'Donnell keeps emphasizing

That form makes it VERY CLEAR, at least twice (once at the very top of the form and again RIGHT BY THE SIGNATURE) that falsifying or omitting information can mean severe penalties, including up to 5 years in prison. The signatory has to check YES to agree; if not, the entire form is rejected.

Unless he can't read, Jared HAD to know the consequences. It beggars belief that he forgot a meeting with a Russian lawyer in which Junior and Manafort were present.

[struggle4progress]

12. To forget a hundred contacts must require some memory disorder

[bettyellen]

16. He had to have been promised no one would check up on him- Seesions?

[Amaryllis]

17. Memory disorder is contagious if you hang out with Trumpistas.

[Scarsdale]

25. Early onset

dementia, perhaps??

[tblue37]

33. He just assumed that being who he is and whom he is connected to, he would never

be questioned, criticized, or punished for it.

[NastyRiffraff]

37. True. He's the epitome of the entitled rich kid

I can easily picture him saying "Do you know who I am?"

[FakeNoose]

20. Yes and his wife's security clearance should also be revoked

There's no reason why either of them should even have clearance.

This is not a monarchy, and it doesn't matter who they're related to. Neither of them are qualified.

[Iggo]

6. So I guess retroactively registering as a foreign agent carries a lesser punishment than espionage.

Manafort
Flynn
Kushner (?)
Don Jr (?)
Pence (?)
Don Sr (?)

[FakeNoose]

22. No but their lawyers are telling them to file anyway, just in case

None of these guys has a clue. But it seems they're listening to their lawyers, so we'll see how this goes.

Of course the Cheeto In Charge doesn't listen to anybody, but we already knew that.

[barbtries]

7. all of the trumps

and all of their lawyers are fucking lying pieces of shit and may be (with the republicans) the ruination of a once great republic. straight up.

[Cheviteau]

36. Agree

One day, and soon I hope, a straight line will be drawn from the Kremlin to Mitch McConnell. He's up to his (what would be a chin) in this shit.

[Hassin Bin Sober]

8. Does one typically sign, under threat of perjury and prison, an unverified draft?

Bullshit.

[Fatemah2774]

9. So...

What if I forgot to file my taxes? These people (and I am really being kind) are absolutely out for themselves with no qualms about how they are perceived by the public. I agree, where is the media? Every tweet the orange turd sends should include a response of "security clearance for Kushner must be revoked!"

[Lee-Lee]

10. He was likely granted a provisional clearance as soon as he submitted

The sponsoring agency has the ability to grant a provisional cleanrace pending adjudication. But, they are supposed to do so based upon their confidence that the application was complete and will be approved.

In this case the sponsoring agency is the executive branch/ White House. I am wondering if they submitted that incomplete SF-86 to OPM after the inauguration or before. Regardless the transition people were responsible to make sure it was complete, but if done before the inauguration someone in the outgoing administration should have raised the huge red flag.

Sadly, if they really did submit it with all the foreign contact listings totally blank and his lawyer is willing to take the fall for accidentally submitting a "draft" and then they made what appear to be efforts to correct the record before OPM raised questions the odds of him every being charged are slim to none. Unless you could find smoking gun emails or other records indicating they knowingly hid contacts their explanation it was a lawyers error submitting the draft will be enough to have reasonable doubt. We all know it's BS, but it's good enough BS to keep him out of trouble.

[flibbitygiblets]

21. Assuming this was the case, are we to believe that in the ensuing 6 months, no one reminded him?

to follow up? And if someone did (I assume that's someone's job to make sure this stuff happens, sure is where I work), then there would be a communications trail of those requests.

So then his excuse changes from "oops, forgot to follow up" to "willfully ignored and avoided answering security questions". Moving in the right direction now!

[Scarsdale]

26. With memory problems like this

who knows how much he has forgotten? Maybe in meeting overseas? To be sure, he was actively involved in trying to get a few BILLION $$$$ in bailout cash for his family business. Obviously, THAT take precedence over national security.

[stopbush]

13. Who signs a draft of any document?

[bettyellen]

15. no one. He committed a crime here.

[rickford66]

31. Right. Signing is swearing it's the truth.

[Blue_Tires]

14. Jared is going into the hall of fame for marrying the right girl at the right time...

Not even Forrest Gump advanced this far at this point in his life...

[L. Coyote]

18. Serssions is okay with perjury, so no worries.

[flibbitygiblets]

19. Assuming we believe he actually "forgot" hundreds of contacts and is incapable of filling out forms

...the very highest level security forms, by the way...

even if we set aside common sense and buy that line of horse-shit, then what the F**K is someone that incompetent, forgetful and plain stupid doing brokering middle east peace, and all that other ridiculous shit he's supposedly right on top of?

[FakeNoose]

23. He's not fooling any judge with this

But his lawyers are probably hoping to bluff their way through this.
There's very little defense for any of his activities - if/when he ever does face charges.

[Still In Wisconsin]

27. The only "job" Jahhr-uhhd should have is being somebody's prison bitch.

I hope he somehow, some day gets what he deserves.

[Kablooie]

28. Perfectly understandable. Who hasn't forgotten hundreds of foreign contacts? Happens to all of us.

[tblue37]

35. When my son applied for his security clearance, he had to ask me for all the

different addresses we had when he was growing up, because being just a little kid at the time he lived at those addresses did not excuse him from providing all the addresses. You don't get to omit *anything* on those forms!

[Mr. Ected]

29. Does this mean that they are going to remove this statute from the federal code?

What point is there having a law if it can only be selectively applied?

[rickford66]

30. What a load of BS.

I've filled these out three times that I can remember. A pain in the butt, especially for me married to a Green Card holder. You don't hand in draft copies. You sign, essentially swearing it's factual and hand it in.