Tag: Jared Kushner

Jared Kushner is illegally running the RNC and Trump’s re-election campaign from the White House

Presidential son-in-law Jared Kushner is running the Republican National Committee (RNC) and President Donald Trump’s re-election campaign from his perch as a White House senior advisor, Vanity Fair correspondent Gabriel Sherman reported Tuesday.

“While Trump relishes the prospect of going after his opponents, his family is acting emboldened in the post-Mueller environment,” Vanity Fair reported. “Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump, in particular, are taking a more aggressive approach to internal politics, sources said.”

“He’s running the RNC. He’s running the campaign,” a former West Wing official explained.

View the complete April 16 article by Bob Brigham on the Raw Story website here.

Confirmed: Trump overruled career security experts to give Jared Kushner top security clearance

Donald Trump is a threat to the national security of the United States. That is not a hyperbolic sentence. He’s displayed that with his threat to close the Southern border—which will create massive economic disruption, to surrounding himself with a cast of grifters and criminals—many of whom were given actual jobs in his administration (see Michael Flynn), to stunning the world, standing onstage with Vladimir Putin denouncing U.S. Intelligence findings.

The list of security breaches is a long one, but none more serious than the foreign intelligence operations running in and around Trump’s private golf clubs and the decision to grant top secret security clearances to 25 individuals who did not pass the necessary background checks for access to the world’s most guarded intelligence secrets.

Now the Washington Post has confirmed one of those individuals who failed a background check was Jared Kushner, Donald Trump’s son-in-law. He was rejected due to “significant” security concerns and Donald Trump instructed his then chief of staff, John Kelly, to grant Kushner clearance anyway. John Kelly was so disturbed by the order that he took the unusual step of writing a memo to archive his objections. And that is a big deal. Former senior Justice Department officials concur, this a very big deal.

View the complete April 4 article by Jen Hayden with Daily Kos on the AlterNet website here.

Jared Kushner identified as senior White House official whose security clearance was denied by career officials

The Trump administration is under scrutiny for bucking the established security clearance procedure once again – this time, for 25 administration officials. (Video: Jenny Starrs/Photo: Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)

The senior White House official whose security clearance was denied last year because of concerns about foreign influence, private business interests and personal conduct is presidential son-in-law Jared Kushner, according to people familiar with documents and testimony provided to the House Oversight Committee.

Kushner was identified only as “Senior White House Official 1” in committee documents released this week describing the testimony of Tricia Newbold, a whistleblower in the White House’s personnel security office who said she and another career employee determined that Kushner had too many “significant disqualifying factors” to receive a clearance.

Their decision was overruled by Carl Kline, the career official who then headed the office, according to Newbold’s interview with committee staff.

View the complete April 3 article by Tom Hamburger, Rachael Bade .and Ashley Parker on The Washington Post website here

Remember Jared Kushner’s Middle East peace plan?

Appearing in front of a congressional committee on Wednesday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was asked a simple question: When is the United States going to unveil the long-awaited Israel-Palestinian peace plan being crafted by the president’s son-in-law Jared Kushner?

“I think we can say in less than 20 years,” America’s top diplomat said, laughing. “I prefer not to be more precise.”

The remark was intended in jest, but it highlighted an unfortunate fact: The Trump administration’s peace plan has already been a long time coming, and few details have been revealed. Pompeo was smiling, but those hoping the plan may be the solution to one of the Middle East’s most intractable problems fear they may be waiting not for Kushner, but for Godot.

View the complete March 28 article by Adam Taylor on The Washington Post website here.

Kushner to cooperate with Judiciary document requests

White House adviser Jared Kushner has indicated through his counsel that he will provide documents to the House Judiciary Committee as part of the panel’s sprawling inquiry into the Trump administration, campaign and businesses through his attorney, a committee source tells The Hill.

Kushner attorney Abbe Lowell has indicated to the panel that he and his client will provide documents as part of the panel’s first wave of documents requests, the source says. It’s unclear how extensive the documents provided by Kushner will be.

Lowell and his spokesman did not respond to multiple requests for comment about such plans.

View the complete March 22 article by Olivia beavers on The Hill website here.

‘Naive and reckless’: Biographer exposes Jared and Ivanka’s ‘self-importance’ — and how they infuriated the White House counsel

The latest revelations about Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump’s use of private email and messaging apps in the White House of is yet another example of how thoroughly unqualified President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and daughter are for their current roles, said journalist Vicky Ward in conversation with Ari Melber on MSNBC’s “The Beat” on Thursday — and of how they simply don’t care about how sensitive White House business is.

“These are two people who are naive and reckless because they have an extraordinary sense of self-importance,” said Ward. “They are extraordinarily unaware. They are disdainful of rules, they think that rules are for other people.”

Watch below: Continue reading “‘Naive and reckless’: Biographer exposes Jared and Ivanka’s ‘self-importance’ — and how they infuriated the White House counsel”

Report: Kushner Uses Private Email, WhatsApp For White House Business

Rep. Elijah Cummings, chairman of the House Oversight Committee, is expressing concerns over senior White House aide Jared Kushner’s use of the encrypted messaging service WhatsApp and his personal e-mail account for official government business.

Cummings has revealed that Kushner’s use of WhatsApp was discussed during a December 19 meeting that the Maryland Democrat attended along with Rep. Trey Gowdy and Abbe Lowell, who is Kushner’s attorney. And Cummings voiced his concerns over Kushner’s use of WhatsApp for government matters in a March 21 letter to White House Counsel Pat A. Cipollone. Continue reading “Report: Kushner Uses Private Email, WhatsApp For White House Business”

Jared Kushner ordered smear campaign against army vet who refused to serve in Trump White House: book

Mark Corallo, an Army veteran who once served as a spokesman for President Donald Trump’s legal team, says that Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner waged a smear campaign against him after he refused a job at the Trump White House.

According to an excerpt of a book called “Kushner, Inc.” published by ABC News, the campaign against Corallo began after he rejected Kushner’s pleas to work as the White House Communications Director.

“Don’t you want to serve your country?” Kushner asked him at the time.

View the complete March 13 article by Brad Reed of Raw Story on the AlterNet website here.

‘My Dad’s Not a Racist’: Book Describes Ivanka Trump’s Defense After Charlottesville

WASHINGTON — When Gary D. Cohn was considering resigning as the top White House economic adviser after President Trump blamed “both sides” in a deadly white nationalist protest in Charlottesville, Va., his first stop was a meeting with Mr. Trump’s children.

In a conversation in August 2017 with Ivanka Trump, the president’s eldest daughter and senior adviser, Mr. Cohn was shocked by her reaction to his concerns, according to a new book about Ms. Trump and her husband, Jared Kushner.

“My dad’s not a racist; he didn’t mean any of it,” Ms. Trump said of the president’s refusal to condemn white nationalists outright. Appearing to channel her father, she added, “That’s not what he said.”

View the complete March 11 article by Annie Karni and Maggie Haberman on The New York Times website here.

Dems ramp up scrutiny of Kushner’s security clearance

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.

View the complete March 1 article by Cristina Marcos on The Hill website here.