Against Advice of Officials, Trump Also Demanded Daughter’s Security Clearance

From Dictionary.com

nepotism

^{[nep-uh-tiz-uh m]}

noun

patronage bestowed or favoritism shown on the basis of family relationship, as in business and politics: She was accused of nepotism when she made her nephew an officer of the firm.

Let’s just keep that one in mind, while we consider the fact that nepotism is not always a good thing.

I mean, if you own a small business and it’s family owned, no biggie, right?

When you’re the president of the United States and you eschew the cautionary advice of seasoned professionals, for the sake of rewarding family with powerful positions which affect the entire nation, and for which they are not qualified, yeah. It’s a problem.

Tuesday evening, we discussed the nepotism infecting the Trump administration.

Senior adviser and Trump son-in-law, Jared Kushner, has come under fire after a recent report suggested that President Trump demanded Kushner to be given top secret security clearance, even after being warned against it by intelligence officials.

Kushner has had several contacts with Russian and other foreign officials that he failed to initially disclose on his security paperwork.

He sought to create a back channel line of communication between the Trump administration and Russia, using Russian facilities, so as to avoid any American interference.

His family business has been struggling to stay afloat, leading intelligence officials to consider him susceptible to manipulation, based on finances.

That theory holds weight, when you consider his family has reached out to multiple foreign dignitaries, seeking loans, and all but promising access to the presidency, via Kushner.

Then there are the intercepted conversations between foreign officials, suggesting that to get their way with the Trump administration, they must deal with Kushner, because they saw him as someone they could manipulate.

In other words, Jared Kushner is not only unqualified to hold the position he holds, or to have top secret security clearance – He’s a risk.

As covered on Tuesday, several Democrat representatives have requested an investigation into how the Trump administration is meting out those security clearances. How did someone like Kushner, with his mountain of negatives get it, in spite of warnings from top intelligence?

So while we chew on that, make room to digest this:

President Trump also pressured then-Chief of Staff John Kelly and then-White House counsel Don McGahn to grant that same top secret security clearance to his favored child, Ivanka Trump.

From CNN:

While Trump has the legal authority to grant clearances, most instances are left up to the White House personnel security office, which determines whether a staffer should be granted one after the FBI has conducted a background check. But after concerns were raised by the personnel office, Trump pushed Kelly and McGahn to make the decision on his daughter and son-in-law’s clearances so it did not appear as if he was tainting the process to favor his family, sources told CNN. After both refused, Trump granted them their security clearances.

The latest revelation also contradicts Ivanka Trump’s denial to ABC News three weeks ago, when she said her father had “no involvement” regarding her or Kushner’s clearances.

Some are suggesting that she didn’t really lie. It’s possible that she wasn’t aware of any problems with her own clearances, but I dare say, she had to be aware of everything that was going on with her husband, and exactly why that would pose a problem.

White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders is refusing to comment, other than to say they can’t answer to anonymous sources.

Kelly and McGahn are refusing to answer – which kind of seems like an answer, in itself, if you ask me.

Kushner’s clearance was downgraded in February 2018 after Kelly stipulated new changes to the security clearance system because a senior West Wing staffer with a temporary clearance was accused of domestic abuse by his ex-wife. Aides who previously operated on “top secret/sensitive compartmentalized information” interim clearances saw their access changed to “secret,” a classification for less sensitive material. In the months after Kushner’s clearance was downgraded, Trump badgered aides about the hold up with his daughter and son-in-law, remarking that he didn’t see what the issue was in granting them clearances because they would likely move back to New York in the coming months. Sources tell CNN that, for now, neither of them are expected to leave the West Wing.

Who really expected them to leave, when they’ve found a position that is proving so lucrative for them? Are they really supposed to let Daddy run the grift, alone?

Because they are a married couple, concerns that surfaced during one person’s security clearance investigation could stall or block both of them from receiving a full clearance. But officials had concerns about granting Trump a clearance that were separate from those raised about her husband, according to one of the sources, though it’s unclear what the concerns regarding her were. At the time, the couple told associates they believed Kelly was blocking them from getting clearances because he did not feel like they belonged in the West Wing.

It seems like crying, “VICTIM!” runs in the family.

House Democrats are seeking answers regarding how Trump doles out those clearances, with House Oversight Committee Chairman Elijah Cummings sending a request for documents related to the security clearance process to the White House.

This is one of the issues President Trump has decided not to comply with.

White House counsel Pat Cipollone said the committee’s request for the information was “without legal support, clearly premature, and suggests a breach of the constitutionally required accommodation process.”

Maybe.

Next we wait for the torrent of subpoenas, because you know that’s the next step.