The White House, per Chief of Staff John Kelly, is overhauling its security clearance process after the Rob Porter scandal exposed that staffers who were working close to the president, including Jared Kushner, were still under interim security clearances because they had not passed their background checks. As a result, Kushner is reportedly not pleased that Kelly is planning to restrict his access to highly classified information as well as to President Trump himself.
A White House official told CNN that there was also an unspoken worry among several staffers that raising concerns about Porter’s interim clearance would have in turn raised concerns about Kushner’s similar status and prompted questions about the various issues clouding Kushner. However, even though Trump has given Kelly complete control over changing the security clearance system, sources are convinced that if Kushner were in fact blocked by the policy, Trump would still give Kushner access to whatever information he requested.
According to some people in the White House, Kelly’s new policy states that employees like Kushner with interim security statuses will no longer have access to top intelligence information. Yet Kushner has, reportedly, asked for access to more classified information than anyone else in the White House. There are differing opinions among sources as to whether or not Kelly is intentionally targeting Kushner with this policy revision, which is set to go into effect on Friday.
(Via CNN)