House Democrats: Revoke Kushner’s Security Clearance Over Russia Investigation

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(JTA) — Five House Democrats called for Jared Kushner’s security clearance to be revoked over his alleged ties to Russia.
In a letter co-signed by Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.) to FBI Director James Comey and Charles Phalen, director of the National Background Investigations Bureau, the Democrats expressed concerns over the alleged failure of the President’s son-in-law and senior advisor to disclose that he had had contacts with foreign officials on his SF-86 questionnaire. The form is used for national security positions.
Passages from the letter were published in an article Thursday on the news site The Hill.
The New York Times reported last week that Kushner omitted having communicated with Russian Ambassador to the U.S. Sergey Kisliyak and Sergey Gorkov, the head of Vneshconom Bank.
Ex-national security adviser Michael Flynn resigned following reports that he failed to disclose to senior White House officials, including Vice President Mike Pence, information about his contacts with Kisliyak before the President’s inauguration.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions recused himself last month from the Russia investigation after he didn’t disclose he had communicated with the ambassador to the Senate Judiciary Committee.
“We are concerned that Jared Kushner may have engaged in similar deception,” Beyer and Democrats Ted Lieu (Calif.), Jamie Raskin (Md.), Jerry Nadler (N.Y.) and Peter Welch (Vt.) wrote in the letter.
“Given the severity of the allegations and still unanswered questions about this administration’s recently uncovered covert dealing with Russian government and intelligence officials, we are requesting that Mr. Kushner’s interim top-secret security clearance be suspended pending a review of Mr. Kushner’s compliance with the laws and regulation governing security clearances,” the letter continued.
Jamie Gorelick, Kushner’s lawyer, told the Times that Kushner would be happy to provide further information about his foreign contacts to the FBI.
The Senate Intelligence Committee also plans to interview Kushner as part of its investigation between the Trump administration and Russia, according to The Times.
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