Which is scarier — that Trump doesn’t read his daily intel briefing, or that Jared Kushner does?By Karen Tumulty Columnist February 11 at 4:03 PM
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/which-is-scarier--that-trump-doesnt-read-his-daily-intel-briefing-or-that-jared-kushner-does/2018/02/11/faad67e4-0f30-11e8-9065-e55346f6de81_story.html
White House senior adviser Jared Kushner listens as President Trump speaks during a Cabinet meeting at the White House on Nov. 1, 2017. (Evan Vucci/AP)[...]
Jared Kushner’s inability to get a permanent security clearance, for reasons that are not entirely clear, has become a source of vexation at the White House. But in the meantime, he has a temporary status that allows him to “see materials, including the President’s Daily Brief, that are among the most sensitive in government,†they wrote.
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There are two sets of issues to be concerned about here. The more serious one, of course, is whether the president is getting the information he needs to keep the country safe — or alternatively, whether his handlers may be dumbing things down to avoid overtaxing his attention span or challenging his preconceptions.
In the case of Kushner, there is a potential security risk but also the more immediate question of how appropriate is it for him to have access to the material under any circumstances. That takes us back to the fact that the 37-year-old real estate scion has no credential to merit holding his current White House job, outside of whom he married.
It is hard to miss the irony of it all: Wasn’t the main driver of the scandal surrounding Hillary Clinton’s emails the fact that it suggested she was careless in handling the nation’s secrets?
The President’s Daily Brief, or PDB, was the document that on Aug. 6, 2001,
contained a heading warning: “Bin Ladin Determined to Strike in U.S.†It even suggested that he might hijack airlines to do it.
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A separate issue is whether his oral briefings are full reflections of what the PDBs actually say. Last year, for instance, The Post
reported that intelligence officials include Russia-related material only in the written version and avoid referring to it in their oral presentations, in apparent fear that it will set off another presidential eruption about witch hunts by sore-loser Democrats.
While it is typical for a close circle of presidential aides to also have access to the PDB, it is far less so for someone like Kushner, a newcomer to government who has only a temporary status on his clearance — and who, it should be noted, is also a focus in special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s Russia investigation.
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