Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein contacted White House counsel Don McGahn two weeks ago to inform him that there were some complications with senior White House aide Jared Kushner’s security clearance application, according to a new report.
Rosenstein said that more information was needed from Kushner, who has been using an interim security clearance, and that would result in additional delays in his application, the Washington Post reported Friday.
But the Justice Department claimed Rosenstein did not provide any specific details to McGahn on what about Kushner needed to be investigated.
“The Deputy Attorney General has not referenced to the White House any specific concerns relating to this individual’s security clearance process,” spokeswoman Sarah Isgur Flores said in a statement.
The report comes on the heels of another report, which said Kushner’s efforts to receive a full security clearance will be stymied, in part, due to special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election and possible collusion between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin.
White House chief of staff John Kelly instructed aides earlier this month to “discontinue” interim security clearances for those who have had pending clearance applications since June 1 or earlier. Kushner has been working in his father-in-law’s administration since President Trump’s inauguration in January 2017.
Kelly also demanded that staffers who did still have interim clearances receive limited access to highly classified information.
The White House has not revealed if Kushner’s clearance would be removed, although Kelly said he has “full confidence in his ability to continue performing his duties in his foreign policy portfolio.”
Speaking to reporters Friday at a joint press conference with Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, Trump declined to reveal whether he would grant a waiver for Kushner should new rules place his son-in-law in jeopardy of losing his temporary security clearance, saying only that the matter “will be up to Gen. Kelly.”
