Politics Kushner loses access to top-secret intelligence

Presidential son-in-law and adviser Jared Kushner has had his security clearance downgraded — a move that will prevent him from viewing many of the sensitive documents to which he once had unfettered access.

Kushner is not alone. All White House aides working on the highest-level interim clearances — at the Top Secret/SCI-level — were informed in a memo sent Friday that their clearances would be downgraded to the Secret level, according to three people with knowledge of the situation.


The SCI acronym stands for sensitive compartmented information, a category of information that comes from sensitive intelligence sources and must be walled off.

The memo was not signed by chief of staff John Kelly, but it comes as the retired Marine general and other top White House aides are grappling with the fallout of a scandal involving former White House staff secretary Rob Porter, which revealed that dozens of White House aides had yet to receive permanent clearances but nonetheless had access to some of the country’s deepest secrets.

https://www.politico.com/story/2018/02/27/jared-kushner-security-clearance-downgrade-427178

 

Kuckner.

 

Trump's family is reportedly furious with John Kelly, and the sides may enter a 'death match'

• A White House source told the news website Axios that Jared Kushner and his wife, Ivanka Trump, were squaring up for a "death match" with the White House chief of staff, John Kelly.
• Kushner had a horrendous Tuesday, when he had his security clearance downgraded and also appeared to break the law.
• An article in The Washington Post also said foreign officials had used his inexperience to try to manipulate him.
• But Kelly too is on shaky ground over his handling of Rob Porter, who resigned as White House staff secretary amid domestic-abuse allegations.

A White House source has told the news website Axios that Jared Kushner and his wife, Ivanka Trump, are squaring up for a "death match" with the White House chief of staff, John Kelly, who they may feel betrayed them.

The news follows a horrendous Tuesday for Kushner, the senior adviser to and son-in-law of President Donald Trump, and would be the latest example of internal strife at the Trump White House.

"Javanka and Kelly are locked in a death match," the source told Axios' Mike Allen. "Two enter. Only one survives."

http://www.businessinsider.com/trum...ry-with-john-kelly-looming-death-match-2018-2

 

Kelly would kill Kuckner.

 

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2018/mar/4/trump-team-security-clearance-process-weaponized-b/

Anti-Trump bureaucrats accused of weaponizing security clearance process


The security clearance process has tied the Trump administration in knots — and that is exactly what the bureaucrats running theWhite Housepersonnel security office intended, said a lawyer who has been battling the office.

The problem is a small group of career bureaucrats holed up in the Old Executive Office Building who turned security reviews into quicksand to ensnare President Trump’s team, said Sean M. Bigley, a federal security clearance lawyer who represents several senior administration officials caught up in the process.

“The security clearance process is being weaponized by anti-Trump bureaucrats who are using it as a tool to not only thwart the president’s agenda but to prevent him from installing appointees who will execute it,” Mr. Bigley told The Washington Times.

His account of obstruction and stalling tactics bolstersWhite HouseChief of StaffJohn F. Kelly’s criticism of the security office and further illuminates recent incidents involving security clearances that have embarrassed Mr. Trump, including a downgrade of top-secret clearance for senior adviser and son-in-lawJared Kushner.

The foot-dragging in the security clearance process is prevalent throughout the administration, including at the Defense Department, but the problem is most visible and startling at theWhite House, said Mr. Bigley.

The completed FBI background checks routinely get snagged by the office, also known as EOP Security, that is manned by fewer than a dozen career officials. The office has a reputation for bureaucratic inefficiency stretching back several administrations, but it now has adopted an adversarial stance toward Mr. Trump.

“There really is a hostility and there seems to be almost an institutional arrogance in lack of willingness to engage,” said Mr. Bigley. “I literally cannot get a phone call returned, and I am representing senior people in the administration who are just asking for basic answers as to why EOP Security is still sitting on their background investigation a year after it has been completed.”

 

Not Trump's lawyer.

Clearly a swamp needing to be drained issue.

 

Mr. Bigley is a perfect name here. I suggest he be the next chief of staff.

barfo

 

No idea if Kushner could pass or not, but with "bureaucratic and administrative" holds tying up my current clearance resubmission, (and how I just spent a year trying to get my tax return given back after DoD/DFAS seized it erroneously) I can absolutely see how career bureaucrats can maintain a constant state of not getting things done (and then messing it up when they do), and they pointing to regulations.
Similarly, the state of MD issued a lien on me (passed by a judge and everything) for not paying my state taxes a few years back. I immediately sent in my copy of the tax return and W-2, and called them to let them know. I couldn't even get a person to pick up the phone. I finally dialed enough numbers around the number in the letter to get someone to take a message for me. After 4 months I got a notice saying "thank you for your payment" and said my lien was paid. I never paid a dime on the lien, just showed them it was an erroneous one. But it still shows as a judgement on my credit report. I can't get anyone (including the first number) to answer to take it off.

 

You sure have a lot of troubles with the government. You'd think working for the government would make it easier rather than harder. Didn't they give you the secret deep-state password?

barfo

 

I actually was going to write more...

It seems as if those who deal more with the government have a much better idea of what it does, and severely wants to limit its power over our lives. Because it's, by and large, run by idiots and malicious incompetents, and the few good folks around are swamped in work and micromanaged into obscurity.

I think about these things every time someone wants a new tax, or new benefit, or new regulation, or...

 

Well said.