The head of a government bureau in charge of background checks told a House subcommittee hearing Thursday that he has “never seen that level of mistakes” that he saw on the security clearance form of White House Senior Adviser Jared Kushner — an official who has been under increased scrutiny over his lack of disclosure.
Charles Phalen — the director of the recently-created National Background Investigations Bureau within the Office of Personnel Management — was asked by Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL) if there has ever been an applicant who had to submit four addenda following over 100 errors and omissions, and still managed to retain their clearance.
Phalen said that he had not seen that level of mistakes, although he noted that OPM did not handle the fact-checking of Kushner’s application.
“I will caveat it by saying I’ve not seen the breadth of all the applications, but I have never seen that level of mistakes,” he said.
Kushner’s initial form omitted almost 100 contacts that he made with foreign government officials, forcing him to file the extra meetings four months later in May. His lawyers claimed that it was because a member of his staff had filed the form prematurely.
Even then, he did not include the meeting he, along with Donald Trump Jr. and then-campaign chairman Paul Manafort, had at Trump Tower in 2016 with a Russian lawyer — a meeting that has reportedly caught the eye of FBI Special Counsel Robert Mueller, as it raised questions about attempted collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.
Kushner attorney Jamie Gorelick told CNN, who first reported Phalen’s remarks, that Kushner is cooperating fully with the FBI’s background investigation:
[A]s we have previously stated, Mr. Kushner’s SF-86 was prematurely submitted and, among other errors, did not list any contacts with foreign government officials. The next day, Mr. Kushner submitted supplemental information stating that he had had “numerous contacts with foreign officials” about which he would be happy to provide additional information. He submitted that supplemental information to the FBI and is cooperating fully with its background investigation.
Kushner has been under pressure for his lack of disclosure recently. His use of a private email address that he did not disclose to lawmakers sparked the ire of the Senate Intelligence Committee in September, when they found out about the use of the address from media reports.
This week, a Democratic congressman accused Kushner of enriching himself by not revealing his stake in a real estate business on his financial disclosure forms — a move from which Kushner may have profited.
Adam Shaw is a Breitbart News politics reporter based in New York. Follow Adam on Twitter: @AdamShawNY
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