By Ella Nilsen and Rachel Wolfe Feb 27, 2018, 8:00pm EST
It’s been another bad day for White House aides, as senior adviser (and son-in-law to President Donald Trump) Jared Kushner got his high-level security clearance taken away. [Politico / Eliana Johnson and Andrew Restuccia]
Specifically, Kushner’s top-secret clearance was downgraded to secret. He’s also had some of his foreign policy-related duties reduced. [NYT / Katie Rogers and Michael Shear]
Kushner isn’t being singled out, however. All White House aides with the highest-level top-secret interim clearances were told they would be downgraded to secret. [Politico / Eliana Johnson and Andrew Restuccia]
This is continuing fallout from the White House’s Rob Porter scandal. Porter — the former White House staff secretary accused of domestic violence by his two ex-wives and an ex-girlfriend — held a senior position despite not having a permanent security clearance or a completed FBI background check. [Vox / Jane Coaston]
The revelations about Porter prompted the realization that a number of aides who hadn’t been properly vetted were still getting top-level security clearances. It’s unclear why these people still don’t have the proper clearances more than a year after Trump took office. [CBS News / Kathryn Watson]
But there also could be more to Kushner’s story specifically; Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein reportedly gave White House counsel Don McGahn new information that halted Kushner’s security clearance application. [Reuters / Mark Hosenball and Warren Strobel]
There’s also troubling news that officials in foreign countries including the United Arab Emirates, China, Israel, and Mexico have privately talked about ways they could manipulate Kushner by taking aim at his business entanglements, US intelligence officials told the Washington Post. [Washington Post / Shane Harris, Carol D. Leonnig, Greg Jaffe, and Josh Dawsey]
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