Blumenthal Statement on the Status of Kushner's Security Clearance

[WASHINGTON, DC] – U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) released the following statement following reports that Jared Kushner’s security clearance has been downgraded – and that officials in at least four countries discussed using Kushner’s business entanglements to influence him:

“Downgrading Jared Kushner’s security clearance gives new meaning to the term “overdue.” Kushner’s access to highly sensitive, classified information should have been not just downgraded, but eliminated long ago. There is no reasonable justification for a yearlong policy that allowed people who may have very harmful secrets in their own backgrounds to have access to our nation’s secrets.”

“This step raises questions about Kushner’s continued role at the White House and the reasons he was unable to obtain a permanent security clearance – which are still unknown. It highlights questions about his financial entanglements with other countries, such as China, and potential conflicts of interest while he holds significant foreign policy responsibilities at the White House. A disturbing new report has revealed that these business dealings may have made Kushner vulnerable to manipulation by foreign governments, which is exactly what the security clearance process is designed to avoid.”

“Today’s action is no substitute for substantive responses to the series of questions I have put to the White House about the unknown number of high level White House officials who have been operating without permanent security clearances.”

Earlier today, Blumenthal joined U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA), Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, in writing White House Counsel Don McGahn and FBI Director Christopher Wray today seeking additional information about the process for allowing government employees access to sensitive or classified information. Grassley and Blumenthal requested information on how interim security clearances were handled for White House and congressional employees during the current and previous administrations. The full text of today’s letter is available here.

Last month, Blumenthal also wrote Wray to raise concerns regarding the White House’s reliance on interim security clearances. In a letter joined by U.S. Senators Mazie Hirono (D-HI), Tom Udall (D-NM), Cory Booker (D-NJ), Martin Heinrich (D-NM), and Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Blumenthal asked the FBI to provide them with the names and status of all individuals who currently hold interim security clearances, including those whose background checks have been completed and who are unable to obtain full security clearances. The full text of the letter is available here.

Earlier in February, Blumenthal, Hirono, Baldwin, Udall, and Booker joined seven additional Senators writing to White House Chief of Staff John Kelly and McGahn to raise serious concerns regarding former Staff Secretary Rob Porter’s ongoing access to classified information even after Kelly was notified that Porter was unable to obtain a security clearance.

Blumenthal, Hirono, and U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) have also requested an investigation by the Inspector General for the Intelligence Community into the Trump Administration’s process for determining access to classified information.

In July, Blumenthal demanded Kushner’s security clearance be immediately suspended, following information about Kushner’s contacts with Russian lobbyists and government-linked agents. That letter – available here – followed a June request for a review of Kushner’s security clearance after troubling allegations Kushner had concealed meetings with Russian officials – among them Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak, and VEB Chairman Sergey Gorkov – on his security clearance application.