An application for a security clearance that President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, submitted was rejected by two White House security analysts, but a White House supervisor overruled the determination, a report says.
Kushner’s application for a security clearance was reportedly rejected because of the White House adviser’s dealings with foreign entities. Analysts supposedly worried that these foreign entanglements might represent an undue influence over the president’s son-in-law, according to a source NBC News cited.
According to NBC, Carl Kline, White House director of personnel security, is the official who overruled the investigators’ rulings, reportedly overruling his staffers’ determinations at least 30 times. The number of overturned rejections is notable, NBC said, because only one other such overruling was made in the three years before Kline took over as head of the office.
The unnamed source told NBC that Trump “attracted many people with untraditional backgrounds who had complicated financial and personal histories, some of which raised red flags.”
Kushner, who is married to the president’s daughter, Ivanka, had applied for SCI clearance status to have access to information classified as “sensitive compartmented information.” SCI is considered a higher security status than most White House officials receive. SCI information includes transcripts of intercepted foreign communications, CIA briefings, and other sensitive information with international consequences.
Indeed, it was the CIA that supposedly balked at allowing Kushner SCI status, NBC said.
The reasons for denying such clearance may include foreign debts and ties to foreign governments and businesses or things that might make an applicant the target of blackmail. Kushner has had business dealings with officials in the United Arab Emirates, China, Israel, and Mexico.
The White House has not commented on the story.
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston.
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