President Trump's son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner has lost his top-secret security clearance, being downgraded along with the rest of the White House aides working on interim highest-level clearances to the "Secret" level, Politico reports.
White House Chief of Staff John Kelly moved Friday to revoke high-level access to classified information for White House employees whose background checks have been pending since before June 2017. Kushner had apparently been "resisting giving up his access to highly classified information," The New York Times reports. All aides with the interim highest-level clearances were informed of their statuses being downgraded Friday in a memo that was not signed by Kelly, Politico adds.
Trump could theoretically grant Kushner permanent security clearance himself, but he told reporters Friday: "I will let General Kelly make that decision." Kelly assured last week: "I have full confidence in [Kushner's] ability to continue performing his duties in his foreign policy portfolio including overseeing our Israeli-Palestinian peace effort and serving as an integral part of our relationship with Mexico."
Scrutiny over security clearances erupted earlier this month during the scandal over former White House Staff Secretary Rob Porter. Porter apparently had been denied permanent access to highly classified information after the FBI had learned of domestic violence allegations against him leveled by his two ex-wives.
Kushner is reportedly being investigated by Special Counsel Robert Mueller as part of the ongoing Russia investigation.