Were he not President Donald Trump’s millionaire son-in-law, there’s absolutely no way on Earth that Jared Kushner would have a job in the Trump administration. In fact, according to a New York Times report on Thursday, the only reason Kushner even has his White House security clearance at all is because his wife’s father overruled pretty much everyone to give it to him.
Now, House Democrats want to know more.
On Friday, House Committee on Oversight chair Rep. Elijah Cummings announced an “in-depth investigation” into just how and why the White House seems to have arbitrarily decided who gets some of the highest security clearances allows—and specifically, why Kushner still has one.
Citing the Times’ report, which claimed that former White House Chief of Staff General Kelly was “ordered” by Trump to give Kushner clearance, Cummings wrote in a statement announcing the investigation:
The security clearance process is supposed to function in an even-handed and neutral manner based on the national security interests of the United States. This latest report indicates that President Trump may have granted access to our country’s most sensitive classified information to his son-in-law against the advice of career staff—directly contradicting the President’s public denials that he played any role. Our Committee launched a wide-ranging investigation of the White House security clearance process on January 23.
Noting that the Trump administration hasn’t offered any documents to date which explain its seemingly capricious clearance process, Cummings requested in a letter to White House Counsel Pat Cipollone that the administration turn over “all documents related to the background investigations and security clearances” of a number of current and former White House staffers, including Kushner, former National Security Advisor Gen. Michael Flynn, Nazi-adjacent presidential advisor Sebastian Gorka, and others.
“The Committee expects full compliance with its requests as soon as possible,” Cummings warned in his letter, adding that “it may become necessary to consider alternative means to compel compliance.” Bad news for Jared.
You can read the full letter below.