Top Trump adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner had his application rejected by two career White House security specialists after an FBI background check warned of possible potential foreign influence over him but they were overruled by their supervisor, a political appointee, NBC News reports.
Carl Kline, who was appointed by Trump to head the personnel security office in the Executive Office of the President in May 2017, overruled career experts to grant Kushner top-secret clearance despite the concerns about possible foreign influence over him.
Kushner’s FBI background check highlighted questions related to his family business, his contacts with foreign officials, his foreign travel, and meetings he had during the 2016 campaign.
The Washington Post reported last year that officials in at least four countries -- the United Arab Emirates, Israel, Mexico, and China -- had discussed ways they could “manipulate” Kushner by taking advantage of his “ complex business arrangements, financial difficulties and lack of foreign policy experience.”
CIA refused to give Jared full clearance:
After Kline overruled officials, Kushner’s file for sent to the CIA for clearance for access to "sensitive compartmented information," or SCI, the government’s most sensitive secrets.
NBC reported that a CIA official called the White House security division to question how Kushner was allowed to get a security clearance.
“The sources say the CIA has not granted Kushner clearance to review SCI material,” NBC News reported. “That would mean Kushner lacks access to key intelligence unless President Donald Trump decides to override the rules, which is the president's' prerogative. The Washington Post reported in July 2018 that Kushner was not given an ‘SCI’ clearance.”
Kline overruled officials on 30 similar cases:
According to the report, Kushner’s case was one of 30 cases in which Kline overruled career security officials to approve top-secret clearance for Trump officials despite red flags being raised in their background checks.
Sources told NBC that “the number of rejections that were overruled was unprecedented — it had happened only once in the three years preceding Kline's arrival.”
