Kushner gets permanent security clearance after more than a year delay

“With respect to the news about his permanent security clearance, as we stated before, his application was properly submitted, reviewed by career officials, and went through the normal process,” Lowell said. “Having completed these processes, Mr. Kushner is looking forward to continuing the work the president has asked him to do.”

A source told the Times that Kushner’s clearance was approved by career staffers at the FBI after the agency completed his background check.

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It was revealed in February that Kushner had been operating with an interim security clearance for more than a year.

Kushner’s status became public amid questions about how former staff secretary Rob Porter was working in the White House without a full security clearance. Porter had only been given an interim clearance after the FBI was made aware of abuse allegations from his ex-wives.

Kushner’s security clearance at the time was downgraded from top secret to a significantly lower level of access, effectively cutting him off from reviewing some of the nation’s most sensitive intelligence.

The White House defended the lengthy process for issuing a permanent clearance to Kushner, citing the senior adviser’s myriad business dealings and complicated finances.

But the process still raised questions about whether the FBI had held off on issuing the permanent clearance because of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Moscow.

Part of that investigation is examining meetings Kushner attended in 2016 with Russian representatives and officials.

Lowell in his statement said Kushner had cooperated with all investigations into the Trump campaign and administration.

“A year ago, Jared was one of the first to voluntarily cooperate with any investigation into the 2017 campaign and related topics,” Lowell said. “Since then, he has continued this complete cooperation, providing a large number of documents and sitting for hours of interview with congressional committees and providing numerous documents and sitting for two interviews with the Office of Special Counsel. In each occasion, he answered all questions asked and did whatever he could to expedite the conclusion of all the investigation.”

Updated at 3:22 p.m.