Kushner’s security clearance was denied due to concerns of foreign influence: report

President Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser, Jared Kushner, was reportedly denied security clearance last year over concerns of foreign influence and private business interests, The Washington Post reported Wednesday.

The Post, citing people familiar with the situation, identified Kushner as the “Senior White House Official 1” identified in House Oversight Committee documents released this week.

According to the documents, the individual was denied security clearance initially by career officials before being overruled by Carl Kline, who headed the White House’s personnel security office at the time.

{mosads}House Oversight Committee Chairman Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) on Monday released a memo detailing allegations from Tricia Newbold, a whistleblower who has worked as a career official in the Executive Office of the President for 18 years.

Newbold told the committee last month that officials in the Trump administration overruled her and others’ recommendations not to grant security clearances to 25 individuals.

She also reportedly told the committee that a background investigation into Kushner brought concerns regarding foreign influence, personal conduct and other business interests, according to the Post.

The issues raised by Kushner’s background check were not made clear, but the Post reported in 2018 that foreign officials had allegedly discussed ways to influence Kushner by leveraging his business dealings and lack of foreign policy experience.

The United Arab Emirates, China, Israel and Mexico reportedly discussed such efforts, current and former officials told the paper.

The New York Times reported in February that Trump ordered Kushner be given top-secret security clearances despite concerns raised by the intelligence community. Cummings’s memo did not mention Kushner or any other specific individuals, but Reuters reported Monday that Kushner and his wife, Ivanka Trump, President Trump’s daughter, are among the individuals who received clearance despite warnings from experts.

In an interview Monday with Fox News’s Laura Ingraham, Kushner did not address the issue of security clearances directly but said that during his time in the White House he has been “accused of all different types of things” that “turned out to be false.” 

The Hill has reached out to the White House for comment.