The Briefing Room
General Category => Trump Legal Investigations => Topic started by: corbe on March 01, 2019, 11:23:45 pm
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Dems ramp up scrutiny of Kushner's security clearance
By Cristina Marcos - 03/01/19 05:28 PM EST
House Democrats are ramping up their investigation of White House security clearances following reports that President Trump ordered a top-secret clearance for his son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner despite concerns from intelligence officials.
House Oversight and Reform Committee Chairman Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) upped the ante Friday when he threatened to subpoena the White House for documents and witness interviews regarding security clearances that the committee has already demanded.
Democrats are also taking an interest in the roles ex-White House chief of staff John Kelly and former White House counsel Donald McGahn played in the process for Kushner's security clearance. Both former aides were reportedly closely involved in the process but have since left the Trump administration.
The House Oversight and Reform Committee under new Democratic control first opened an investigation in January into the security clearance issues involving multiple current and former Trump administration officials, one of the sprawling probes surrounding the Trump White House.
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https://thehill.com/homenews/house/432274-dems-ramp-up-scrutiny-of-kushners-security-clearance (https://thehill.com/homenews/house/432274-dems-ramp-up-scrutiny-of-kushners-security-clearance)
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Trump can issue security clearances to whomever he wants. He lied anyway
by Tiana Lowe
March 01, 2019 06:04 PM
In the latest bombshell to ricochet around the Beltway press, the New York Times discovered that against the guidance of President Trump's top intelligence officials and legal counsel, he unilaterally granted his son-in-law and White House senior adviser Jared Kushner a top-secret security clearance.
The president has that power. This wouldn't even be a story if his camp hadn't spent months lying about it.
The president and Ivanka Trump both publicly maintained that the former had no interference in the matter. They didn't perjure themselves, but they lied to the press and the public about it.
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https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/trump-can-issue-security-clearances-to-whomever-he-wants-he-lied-anyways (https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/trump-can-issue-security-clearances-to-whomever-he-wants-he-lied-anyways)
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How compromised do you have to be where departments under your appointees like Wray, Pompeo, and Haspel are saying, “Don’t give this guy clearance.â€....? It’s a bit telling Kushner would choose attorneys like Jamie Gorelick and Abbe Lowell to navigate him through the process.
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President pressured staff to grant security clearance to Ivanka Trump
Washington (CNN)President Donald Trump pressured his then-chief of staff John Kelly and White House counsel Don McGahn to grant his daughter and senior adviser Ivanka Trump a security clearance against their recommendations, three people familiar with the matter told CNN.
The President's crusade to grant clearances to his daughter and her husband, Jared Kushner, rankled West Wing officials.
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Because they are a married couple, concerns that surfaced during one person's security clearance investigation could stall or block both of them from receiving a full clearance. But officials had concerns about granting Trump a clearance that were separate from those raised about her husband, according to one of the sources, though it's unclear what the concerns regarding her were. At the time, the couple told associates they believed Kelly was blocking them from getting clearances because he did not feel like they belonged in the West Wing.
https://www.cnn.com/2019/03/05/politics/ivanka-trump-security-clearance-pressure/index.html (https://www.cnn.com/2019/03/05/politics/ivanka-trump-security-clearance-pressure/index.html)
Maybe Bannon was right, when he said, “The railhead of all bad decisions is the same railhead: Javanka.â€