John Kelly strips Jared Kushner of top-secret White House security clearance
Trump: ‘I will let General Kelly make that decision and he’s going to do what’s right for the country’
The security clearance of White House senior adviser Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, has been downgraded, according to two people informed of the decision.
Kushner had been operating with an interim clearance at the “top secret/sensitive compartmented information” level for more than a year. Now he is only authorised to access information at the lower “secret” level, according to a White House official and a person familiar with the decision, both of whom spoke on condition of anonymity. Neither source was authorised to discuss the decision publicly.
Chief of staff John Kelly ordered that White House officials with interim clearances pending since before June 1, 2017, lose their access to the nation’s deepest secrets if they hadn’t received permanent clearances by last Friday. A White House official confirmed to Associated Press that Kelly’s order has been implemented.
Trump could have reversed Kelly’s decision and unilaterally offered Kushner a clearance, but deferred to Kelly.
“I will let General Kelly make that decision and he’s going to do what’s right for the country and I have no doubt he’ll make the right decision,” Trump said Friday, when he addressed the security clearance issue for the first time.