Ivanka Trump says she and Jared Kushner got no special treatment for security clearances
Ivanka Trump says she and her husband, Jared Kushner, got no special treatment from her father when obtaining their top security clearances.
“There were anonymous leaks about there being issues. But the president had no involvement pertaining to my clearance or my husband's clearance, zero," Trump told ABC’s Abby Huntsman during an exclusive interview for “The View”.
Ivanka Trump and Kushner, both serve as White House advisers to President Trump and each received clearances last summer after operating with temporary security clearances for over a year and half while they waited for their background checks to clear.
In her interview with Huntsman, Ivanka Trump said the delay in obtaining her clearance was standard procedure.
“This isn’t new. This was happening under the Obama administration, the Clinton administration,” Ivanka Trump said.
Kushner was not granted full security clearance until May of 2018, almost a year and a half into his role as a senior advisor pertaining to matters in the Middle East. Ivanka Trump received her clearance around the same time.
The security clearances have drawn scrutiny from Democrats in the House.
Last month, Rep. Elijah Cummings, the Democratic chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government reform, announced that he was launching an investigation into the White House and Trump transition team security clearance process. The investigation will explore whether some of Trump’s highest profile officials mishandled government secrets.
In a letter Cummings sent to the White House last month, he requested documents related to the security clearances of former national security advisor Michael Flynn, Staff Secretary Rob Porter and Kushner, among others.
Kushner’s road to security clearance has long been a sticking point for Democrats and some former administration members.
Last February, then Chief of Staff John Kelly downgraded Kushner’s clearance after announcing that he would end all temporary clearances for individuals who had background checks pending since on or before June 2017.
Kushner’s clearance had at the time been pending since January 2017.
President Trump days earlier that he would not move to block the decision.
"I will let general Kelly make that decision, " Trump said last February. "And he's going to do what's right for the country. And I have no doubt he will make the right decision."
