Jared Kushner loses top secret security clearance and will no longer be able to access the most sensitive intelligence
- Jared Kushner's security clearance has been downgraded from Top Secret, which will prevent him from accessing certain classified information that he was previously able to see.
- The son-in-law of and adviser to President Donald Trump had previously been working on a temporary security clearance because federal authorities were still investigating whether he should be allowed a permanent pass.
- Earlier this month, White House chief of staff John Kelly implemented new security clearance guidelines following reports that dozens of staffers were operating on temporary passes.
Jared Kushner has lost his top secret security clearance privileges, Politico reported on Tuesday.
Kushner, the son-in-law of and adviser to President Donald Trump, will no longer have access to some of the government's most sensitive intelligence documents - materials that are grouped under a Top Secret/Sensitive intelligence classification.
All other White House aides who previously had Top Secret clearances were informed on Friday that they would be downgraded to the Secret level, Politico said, citing three anonymous sources.
Kushner's security clearance has been up in the air following revelations that former White House staff secretary Rob Porter was operating under a temporary pass amid an investigation into allegations of domestic abuse from two of his ex-wives.
Porter, Kushner, and dozens of other White House staffers have had their permanent security clearances delayed since joining the Trump administration.
Earlier this month, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein called the White House to inform general counsel Donald McGahn that new, "significant information" related to Kushner needed further investigation, thereby delaying the approval of a full, permanent security clearance.
Kushner had been temporarily operating with an interim security clearance, which allowed him to access some of the same classified information that Trump sees.
When pressed last week on whether he would allow Kushner to continue working on a temporary clearance, Trump said he would leave that decision to Kelly. But according to Politico, Kelly did not sign off on the Friday memo alerting Kushner that his clearance would be downgraded.
Since Kushner added more than 100 names to the SF-86 form on his clearance application last July, Democrats have regularly asked why Kushner still had an interim security clearance.
After the Porter scandal and following scrutiny over the Trump administration's security clearance process, Kelly instituted new guidelines that he said would help sure up some loopholes.
"In ordinary circumstances, the existing processes we inherited, along with the reforms I have implemented in the past months, have generally worked well," Kelly said in a memo February 16. "But recent events have exposed some remaining shortcomings."