{"slug":"trump-kushner-security-clearance-overrule-cia","title":"Jared Kushner Security Clearance: Trump Overruled CIA, NSA, FBI Concerns","date":"2019-02-28","lastUpdated":"2019-05-01","description":"Trump personally overruled the recommendations of intelligence agencies — including the CIA and FBI — to grant top-secret security clearance to his son-in-law Jared Kushner. Clearance adjudicators had denied or flagged Kushner's application due to concerns including his contacts with foreign nationals, his financial entanglements, and the fact that he had omitted more than 100 contacts with foreign nationals from his initial SF-86 security clearance form. Trump had previously denied personally intervening in the clearance process; Kushner's wife Ivanka Trump made the same denial.","summary":"Kushner had 40 contacts with foreign nationals from more than 20 countries that he failed to disclose on his original security clearance form — submitting three amended versions before all contacts were documented. Career security officials recommended denying or limiting Kushner's clearance; Trump overruled them in May 2018. A White House personnel security director told a congressional committee that she had been pressured to grant the clearance against her professional judgment. Both Trump and Ivanka publicly denied Trump had intervened, before the New York Times reported he had personally ordered the clearance.","category":"corruption","severity":"major","ongoing":false,"sources":[{"url":"https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/28/us/politics/jared-kushner-security-clearance.html","title":"Trump Ordered Officials to Give Jared Kushner a Security Clearance","publisher":"The New York Times"},{"url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-personally-intervened-to-grant-kushner-security-clearance-over-objections-of-intelligence-officials/2019/02/28/9edd1cac-3b74-11e9-aaae-69364b2ed137_story.html","title":"Trump personally intervened to grant Kushner security clearance over intelligence objections","publisher":"The Washington Post"},{"url":"https://apnews.com/article/kushner-security-clearance-trump","title":"Kushner security clearance: Trump overruled CIA, FBI concerns","publisher":"The Associated Press"}],"draft":false,"status":"published","tags":["Kushner","security-clearance","CIA","first-term","corruption","foreign-influence"],"relatedEntries":[],"timeline":[{"date":"2017-01-20","title":"Kushner joins White House; clearance process begins","summary":"Kushner is appointed Senior Advisor to the President. His security clearance application begins the adjudication process. His initial SF-86 form will be amended multiple times after omissions are discovered."},{"date":"2018-02-01","title":"Interim clearances revoked under Kelly; Kushner loses top secret access","summary":"White House Chief of Staff John Kelly revokes interim security clearances for senior officials who had been operating on interim clearances for extended periods — including Kushner. Kushner loses top secret access and is unable to see the President's Daily Brief."},{"date":"2018-05-01","title":"Trump orders Kushner's clearance granted","summary":"Trump personally orders that Kushner's security clearance be approved over the objections of career adjudicators and intelligence agencies. Kushner receives top secret/SCI access."},{"date":"2019-02-28","title":"NYT reports Trump overruled agencies — Trump denies","summary":"The New York Times reports that Trump personally ordered the clearance approved. In an interview published the same day, Trump denies having intervened. Ivanka denies it separately. The contradiction between the reporting and the denials is documented in the same day's news cycle."},{"date":"2019-05-01","title":"Congressional testimony reveals White House pressure","summary":"Tricia Newbold, the White House personnel security director, testifies to the House Oversight Committee that she had raised concerns about the Kushner clearance and been overruled. She said she was one of two dozen cases of clearances approved over security professional objections."}],"location":{"name":"Washington, D.C.","lat":38.9072,"lng":-77.0369},"custom":{"era":"first-term","posture":"reported","warCrimeClassification":"enabling","internationalLaw":[],"iccRelevance":false,"victims":"U.S. national security through granting security access over agency objections; integrity of the security clearance system","structuredPerpetrators":[{"name":"Donald Trump","role":"President; personally overruled intelligence agencies to grant son-in-law security clearance","institution":"White House"},{"name":"Jared Kushner","role":"Senior Advisor; received clearance after 40+ undisclosed foreign contacts on original form","institution":"White House"}],"updateLog":[{"date":"2019-05-01","summary":"Updated with Newbold congressional testimony."}]}}