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Two House Democrats are pushing acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney to "immediately revoke" the security clearance of White House adviser Jared Kushner following an NBC News report that security specialists had originally denied his application.
Reps. Ted Lieu of California and Don Beyer of Virginia cited reporting from NBC last week alleging that Kushner's top-secret clearance had been rejected before the decision was overruled by a handpicked Trump appointee. The report said Kushner was just one of about 30 Trump officials who had originally failed to qualify for high-level clearances until Trump's pick, Carl Kline, intervened.
“The White House’s pattern of hiding the truth and devious behavior with regard to Mr. Kushner’s security clearance suggests that the Administration does not take information security seriously," Lieu and Beyer wrote to Mulvaney Thursday. “Members of Congress are now placed in the impossible position of wondering who these 30 officials are that received clearances despite being rejected by the career security officials, what the ‘unfavorable information’ was in their records, and why they still have ongoing access to sensitive national security information."
The two lawmakers recounted “five separate letters” in which the White House had ignored their requests for information on Kushner's clearance and said the continued negligence of Trump officials "increasingly seems like a coverup."
Now there's a word the White House has grown quite accustomed to.