Democratic strategist Estuardo Rodriguez on Friday said that there should be more interest in why President Trump’s former chief of staff John Kelly was so opposed to getting Jared Kushner a security clearance.
“The White House chief of staff expressly opposed the security clearance upgrade for Mr. Kushner,” Rodriguez, principal at the Raben Group, told hosts Krystal Ball and Mattie Duppler on Hill.TV’s “Rising.”
“For me, it’s not even a matter of the president demanded his son-in-law get the clearance, it’s there were high-level professional national security advisers in the White House saying this is a bad idea,” he continued.
“If there’s real reason to be suspicious, or concerned about his access to high-level documents, then that’s the investigation that needs to happen,” he said. “I’m not even worried about President Trump demanding his son-in-law [get a security clearance], it’s what the reason that he shouldn’t have had it in the first place that we need to get into.”
The New York Times reported on Thursday that Trump ordered Kelly last year to obtain a security clearance for his son-in-law and adviser Jared Kushner.
The order came in May after the White House counsel’s office issued its final recommendation against Kushner receiving the clearance, according to the Times.
Kushner’s attorney, Abbe Lowell, told the publication that the White House conveyed to Kushner that his security clearance was handled under normal procedures.
White House counselor Kellyanne Conway on Friday told Fox News that Trump has the “absolute right” to involve himself in the security clearance process for White House staffers.
— Julia Manchester
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