Tag: Jared Kushner

Trump demanded top-secret security clearance for Jared Kushner last year despite concerns of John Kelly and intelligence officials

In 2018, President Trump ordered chief of staff John Kelly to give his son-in-law Jared Kushner a top-secret security clearance, despite officials’ concerns. (Reuters)

President Trump early last year directed his then-chief of staff, John F. Kelly, to give presidential son-in-law Jared Kushner a top-secret security clearance — a move that made Kelly so uncomfortable that he documented the request in writing, according to current and former administration officials.

After Kushner, a senior White House adviser, and his wife, Ivanka Trump, pressured the president to grant Kushner the long-delayed clearance, Trump instructed Kelly to fix the problem, according to a person familiar with Kelly’s account, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe internal discussions.

Kelly told colleagues that the decision to give Kushner top-secret clearance was not supported by career intelligence officials, and he memorialized Trump’s request in an internal memo, according to two people familiar with the memo and the then-chief of staff’s concerns.

View the complete February 28 article by Josh Dawsey, Seung Min Kim and Shane Harris on The Washington Post website.

‘Whistleblower’ seeks protection after sounding alarm over White House security clearances

Tricia Newbold says her supervisor “repeatedly mishandled security files and has approved unwarranted security clearances.”

A White House security specialist is seeking official whistleblower protection from the federal government after raising concerns about “unwarranted security clearances” for administration officials, including Jared Kushner, according to two sources familiar with the matter.

The specialist, Tricia Newbold, filed the whistleblower complaint less than two weeks after she was suspended without pay for defying her supervisor, Carl Kline.

The complaint, which was obtained by NBC News, alleges Newbold raised concerns with Kline about a security clearance for an individual as early as July 2017. The complaint does not identify the person, but sources familiar with the situation told NBC News that it was Kushner, the president’s son-in-law and adviser.

View the complete February 13 article by Laura Strickler on the NBC News website here.

Trump Campaign Used Donor Cash To Pay Kushner’s Legal Bills

President Trump with Steve Bannon (R) and Jared Kushner (C) in 2017. Credit: Carlos Barria, Reuters

Trump’s re-election campaign has used thousands of dollars from donors to pay legal fees for Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, who is a multi-millionaire.

ABC News reports that nearly $100,000 donated to the campaign has gone to pay off Kushner’s liabilities. Two payments were made to the firm Winston & Strawn LLP for a total of $97,904. Kushner’s lawyer Abe Lowell has been part of the firm since May 2018.

Kushner’s net worth has been reported to be anywhere from just north of $320 million to as much as $800 million, and his combined net worth with his wife Ivanka Trump could be over $1 billion. A 2016 report from Forbes estimated that the Kushner family, headed by Jared’s father Charles Kushner, had a $1.8 billion dollar fortune.

View the complete February 9 article by Oliver Willis on the National Memo website here.

Jared Kushner’s security clearance was rejected on concerns of ‘foreign influence’ — until this official overruled it: report

Prince Mohammed bin Salman with Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump in Riyadh last year. Credit: Jonathan Ernst/Reuters

Two White House security clearance specialists rejected President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner’s applications out of concerns that he was potentially susceptible to foreign influence — only to be overruled by Carl Kline, an official installed as the head of personnel security office in the Executive Office of the President, according to a new report from NBC News.

Questions about Kushner’s security clearance have hung over the top aide to the president for about a year, as previous reports had found that he had persisted on a provisional security clearance for months, much longer than is typical, while questions were raised about his application.

Eventually, it was announced that Kushner has obtained an official security clearance — but how that came to pass wasn’t revealed until now.

View the complete January 25 article by Cody Fenwick on the AlterNet website here. 

Officials Rejected Jared Kushner for Top Secret Security Clearance, But Were Overruled

Credit: Jabin Botsford, The Washington Post

Jared Kushner was rejected for a top secret clearance by 2 career security specialists, but their supervisor overruled them and approved him, say sources

Jared Kushner’s application for a top secret clearance was rejected by two career White House security specialists after an FBI background check raised concerns about potential foreign influence on him — but their supervisor overruled the recommendation and approved the clearance, two sources familiar with the matter told NBC News.

The official, Carl Kline, is a former Pentagon employee who was installed as director of the personnel security office in the Executive Office of the President in May 2017.

Kushner’s was one of at least 30 cases in which Kline overruled career security experts and approved a top secret clearance for incoming Trump officials despite unfavorable information, the two sources said.

View the complete January 24 article by Laura Strickler, Ken Dilanian and Peter Alexander on the NBC News website here.

‘We have the umbilical cord’: Harvard Law professor explains Don Jr. and Jared Kushner are caught on collusion

President Donald Trump’s eldest child and namesake son, Donald Trump Jr., senior advisor and son-in-law Jared Kushner, and former Campaign Chairman Paul Manafort. Composite image

Constitutional expert Laurence Tribe — who has taught at Harvard Law for half a century — explained how Donald Trump Jr. allegedly violated federal law during the 2016 presidential campaign.

On MSNBC’s “The Beat” with Ari Melber, Tribe explained the significance to Tuesday’s bombshell reports that Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya was charged with obstruction of justiceand Paul Manafort’s attorneys inadvertently revealing how he mislead special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigators.

Tribe has argued before the Supreme Court three dozen times and is the co-author of the 2018 book To End a Presidency: The Power of Impeachment.

View the complete January 8 article by Bob Brigham on the Raw Story website here.

Jared Kushner got punished for causing Trump’s embarrassing chief of staff problems: report

Credit: Photo Credit: Navy Petty Officer 2nd Class Dominique A. Pineiro, DoD

Trump fired his chief of staff without a replacement.

President Donald Trump is not happy with his son-in-law and top adviser Jared Kushner, according to a new report in Vanity Fair.

Reporter Gabriel Sherman found that the president blames Kushner for the embarrassing failure of his plan to replace current White House Chief of Staff John Kelly with Nick Ayers, who is serving as the vice president’s chief of staff. Kushner and Ivanka Trump reportedly pushed for Kelly’s ouster and Ayers’ ascension, but Ayers foiled the plan on Saturday shortly after Trump revealed he would need a new chief of staff.

To punish Kushner for his role in this blunder, Sherman reports that Trump forced his son-in-law to go on Sean Hannity’s Fox News show and take the heat. Kushner rarely speaks in public.

View the complete December 12 article by Cody Fenwick on the AlterNet.org website here.

Ivanka, Kushner could profit from tax break they pushed

Credit: Twitter

An Associated Press investigation finds President Donald Trump’s daughter and son-in law could benefit from a tax program they pushed

WASHINGTON (AP) — At an Oval Office gathering earlier this year, President Donald Trump began touting his administration’s new real estate investment program, which offers massive tax breaks to developers who invest in downtrodden American communities. He then turned to one of the plan’s strongest supporters.

“Ivanka, would you like to say something?” Trump asked his daughter. “You’ve been pushing this very hard.”

The Opportunity Zone program promoted by Ivanka Trump and her husband Jared Kushner — both senior White House advisers — could also benefit them financially, an Associated Press investigation found.

View the complete December 11 article by Stephen Braun, Jeff Horwitz and Bernard Condon on the Associated Press website here.

 

The Wooing of Jared Kushner: How the Saudis Got a Friend in the White House

Prince Mohammed bin Salman with Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump in Riyadh last year. Credit: Jonathan Ernst/Reuters

Senior American officials were worried. Since the early months of the Trump administration, Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law and Middle East adviser, had been having private, informal conversations with Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the favorite son of Saudi Arabia’s king.

Given Mr. Kushner’s political inexperience, the private exchanges could make him susceptible to Saudi manipulation, said three former senior American officials. In an effort to tighten practices at the White House, a new chief of staff tried to reimpose longstanding procedures stipulating that National Security Council staff members should participate in all calls with foreign leaders.

But even with the restrictions in place, Mr. Kushner, 37, and Prince Mohammed, 33, kept chatting, according to three former White House officials and two others briefed by the Saudi royal court. In fact, they said, the two men were on a first-name basis, calling each other Jared and Mohammed in text messages and phone calls.

View the complete December 8 article by David D. Kirkpatrick, Ben Hubbard, Mark Landler and Mark Mazzeti on The New York Times website here.

“Trump is nuts. This time really feels different”: Trump rejects “war council” intervention, goes it alone

The following article by Gabriel Sherman was posted on the Vanity Fair website August 27, 2018:

With his closest allies defecting, the president increasingly trusts only his instincts. He “got joy” from stripping former C.I.A. director John Brennan’s security clearance. And after betrayals by Allen Weisselberg and David Pecker, a former White House official says, Trump “spent the weekend calling people and screaming.”

After Michael Cohen’s plea deal last week, Donald Trump spiraled out of control, firing wildly in all directions. He railed against “flippers” in a rambling Fox & Friends interview, and lashed out on Twitter at Attorney General Jeff Sessions, the Justice Department, and Robert Mueller. In the wake of his outbursts, White House officials have discussed whether Trump would listen to his closest New York City friends in an effort to rein him in. Two sources briefed on the matter told me that senior officials talked about inviting Rudy Giuliani and a group of Trump’s New York real-estate friends including Tom Barrack, Richard LeFrak, and Howard Lorber to the White House to stage an “intervention” last week. “It was supposed to be a war council,” one source explained. But Trump refused to take the meeting, sources said. “You know Trump—he hates being lectured to,” the source added. (Spokespeople for LeFrak and Lorber say they have no knowledge of a meeting. A spokesperson for Barrack didn’t comment.) Continue reading ““Trump is nuts. This time really feels different”: Trump rejects “war council” intervention, goes it alone”