MEDIA NARRATIVE FAIL: Kushner's Permanent Top Secret Clearance Granted, Even After 7-Hour Interview With Mueller | Eastern NC Now

    Publisher's note: This informational nugget was sent to me by Ben Shapiro, who represents the Daily Wire, and since this is one of the most topical news events, it should be published on BCN.

    On Thursday, Trump advisor Jared Kushner's top secret clearance was restored. That approval came just a few months after Kushner's temporary top secret security clearance had been downgraded after delays in completing his background check. In February, the White House Personnel Security Office, based on information from the FBI, had instead given Kushner secret clearance. The New York Times reported then:

    [T]he complicated finances surrounding Mr. Kushner's family's vast real estate empire and his qualifications for the foreign policy responsibilities given to him by his father-in-law invited scrutiny from the start... The decision to reduce his access to classified information was made after John F. Kelly, the White House chief of staff, announced plans to overhaul the security clearance process at the White House after the resignation of Rob Porter, Mr. Trump's staff secretary, amid allegations of spousal abuse. The change in Mr. Kushner's clearance was first reported by Politico.

    It was clear at the time that Kushner's security status had been downgraded temporarily, contingent on the FBI clearing its backlog of security checks. That process had already ensnared Obama White House deputy national security advisor Ben Rhodes, who was initially denied FBI clearance, only to be later cleared by the Obama administration.

    Kushner's permanent top secret clearance represents a black eye for many in the media who spent weeks speculating that Kushner had lost his temporary clearance thanks to some sort of corruption. Even today, in reporting Kushner's permanent clearance, CNN stated:

    Kushner's troubles were compounded at least in part because his initial security clearance application didn't list dozens of foreign contacts that he later included in updated submissions to the FBI. Kushner's initial SF-86 form did not mention any foreign contacts, though he quickly supplemented it to indicate that he would provide that information. He updated the form in the spring, listing about 100 contacts, but did not mention the June 2016 Trump Tower meeting he attended with Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya, Donald Trump Jr., and former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort. Kushner updated the SF-86 forms once more in June to include that meeting.

    Yet none of that apparently stopped the FBI from giving underlying information to the White House Personnel Security Office that would have been necessary to restoring Kushner's clearance. This certainly puts a crimp in the explanation by the media that Kusner was under severe investigation by the FBI that could have put him in real legal jeopardy. That's even more true given that Kushner interviewed with Robert Mueller's team in April, lasting seven hours. Still, Kushner earned his top secret clearance.

    The media had also speculated that Kushner's portfolio would be reduced. That obviously was not the case: Kushner has been doing heavy lifting with regard to Saudi relations, as well as broader Middle Eastern policy concerns including the movement of the American embassy to Jerusalem.