Jared Kushner used the Mueller report to deflect a totally unrelated question, and it could hint at a new Trump strategy to shut down scrutiny

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Jared Kushner being interview on Fox News over his White House security clearance.

• In an interview with Fox News host Laura Ingraham Monday, Jared Kushner was asked about claims he got a security clearance despite official objections. 
• The president's son-in-law and adviser shrugged off the question, comparing the claim to the allegation of Russian collusion investigated by Robert Mueller.
• Kushner said questions over his security clearance are from the same school of "crazy accusations," as unproven claims of collusion, then moved on.
• The moment, along with similar moves by other Trump allies, shows how citing the Mueller probe is becoming a new strategy to paint other scrutiny as overblown and hysterical.

In an an interview broadcast Monday night President Donald Trump's son-in-law and adviser Jared Kushner shrugged off questions over his White House security clearance, granting a glimpse of a political playbook that could loom large in the months to come.

Speaking to Fox News' Laura Ingraham, Kushner used the central finding of special counsel Robert Mueller's report - which did not established any collusion with Russia  - to avoid answering about something totally unrelated.

Here is the exchange, with the relevant segment highlighted:

Ingraham: The left is going crazy about the security clearance issue. And a whistleblower from the White House has now given a private interview on Capitol Hill with Democrats, and she says that 25 individuals were able to leapfrog over the career people's concerns about security clearances, and they received security clearances, in her view, improperly. What's your reaction for that?

Kushner: Well, I can't comment for the White House's process, but what I can say is that over the last few years that I've been here, I've been accused of all different types of things, and all of those things have turned out to be false.

We've had a lot of crazy accusations, like, that we colluded with Russia. I complied with all the different investigations, whether it be the Senate, the House, the special counsel. I've sat for nearly 20 hours of interviews with them.

By grouping the claims together, Kushner implied that the questions about his security clearance were similarly unfounded, despite them being voiced to Congress by a White House whistleblower.

Kushner is not the first Trump ally official to cite Mueller's report to discredit unrelated investigations into the administration.

Senate Majority leader and Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell, in a recent message to supporters on Facebook, used Mueller to solicit funds for re-election, posting an image of Democratic leaders with the text "these investigations will never end" superimposed on them.

The president's son, Donald Trump Jr, on Sunday cited the report to attack the media as a "blight on our republic."

President Trump in a tweet last week complained that "no matter what the Radical Left Democrats get, no matter what we give them, it will never be enough. Just watch, they will Harass & Complain & Resist (the theme of their movement). So maybe we should just take our victory and say NO, we've got a Country to run!"

Democrats are demanding more of Mueller's report than the summary provided to Congress by Attorney General William Barr, which Trump and his allies has inaccurately described as a "total exoneration."

House Judiciary Committee chairman Jerry Nadler, a Democrat, said on Monday that his panel plans to issue subpoenas to acquire the full 400-page Mueller report.