Kushner’s Security Clearance Got Denied Over Foreign Interest Concerns – Reports

According to documents obtained by the Washington Post, Kushner, identified as "Senior White House Official 1" in House Oversight Committee documents released this week, was initially denied security clearance by career officials before being overruled by Carl Kline, who headed the White House’s personnel security office at the time.

House Oversight Committee Chairman Elijah Cummings 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 the recommendations made by her and others to deny security clearances to 25 individuals. According to the Post, she told the committee that a background investigation into Kushner brought concerns regarding “foreign influence, personal conduct and other business interests.”

Trump Demands WH to Grant Kushner Top Security Clearance Amid US Intel Concerns

1 March 2019, 03:10 GMT

Last year the Post reported, citing unnamed sources, that foreign officials from the United Arab Emirates, China, Israel and Mexico had allegedly discussed ways to influence Kushner by leveraging his business dealings and lack of foreign policy experience.

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