Senators raise more questions about Jared Kushner's security clearance at intel hearing

Erin Kelly | USA TODAY

Show Caption Hide Caption Jared Kushner will stay despite losing top-secret security clearance President Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser, Jared Kushner, has officially been downgraded from the sensitive compartmented information level to the secret level. Veuer's Chandra Lanier has the story.

WASHINGTON — The director of the agency that conducts most of the government's security clearance investigations told a Senate panel Wednesday that he would "have had a hard time" clearing anyone who — like White House adviser Jared Kushner — failed to disclose financial ties to foreign governments.

"I would have a hard time overcoming that," said Charles Phalen Jr., director of the National Background Investigation Bureau at the Office of Personnel Management, at a hearing before the Senate Intelligence Committee.

Phalen was pressed by Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., on whether he believed someone like Kushner should be approved for a security clearance.

Kushner, who is the president's son-in-law as well as a top adviser, had his high-level interim security clearance downgraded last week pending completion of a full-scale background check, according to government officials.

The Washington Post reported last week that officials in at least four countries, including China, "have privately discussed ways they can manipulate Jared Kushner...by taking advantage of his complex business arrangements, financial difficulties and lack of foreign policy experience."

Kushner has repeatedly amended his security clearance form after failing to disclose all his business dealings with foreign governments. Peter Mirijanian, a spokesman for Kushner's lawyer, said last week that Kushner "has done more than what is expected of him in this process."

"Should someone who fails to disclose financial dealings with a foreign adversary be able to get a clearance: yes or no?" Wyden asked Phalen at Wednesday's hearing, which focused on the need to improve the background check process for security clearances.

Phalen said there is nothing in current law requiring a person who fails to disclose that information to automatically be denied clearance. But he said it would be "a prominent thing" for an investigator to take into consideration and that he personally "would have a hard time overcoming that" in deciding whether someone should receive clearance.

Chairman Richard Burr, R-N.C., asked Phalen whether it's unusual for people who have left something off their application form to be given a chance to add it later. Phalen said that people often say they forgot to include information and are allowed to update their forms.

Russia probe: Did Trump campaign and Kremlin collude? Congress unlikely to provide answer

More: Report: Kushner's family business got loans after White House meetings with executives

Related: Jared Kushner, President Trump's son-in-law, has security clearance downgraded

Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., asked what the danger might be of having someone with a high-level security clearance who has financial ties to foreign governments.

Phalen said that if those business entanglements "put them in over their heads," the person could sell valuable government secrets to someone to get themselves out of debt.

Harris said she was concerned about news reports that more than 100 people working at the White House still have only interim security clearances.

Daniel Payne, director of Defense Security Service at the Department of Defense, said "you can see risk involved with interim clearances," adding that the government needs "to reduce them as much as possible."

Kushner's interim security clearance was downgraded as White House Chief of Staff John Kelly seeks to overhaul the security clearance process. That process drew headlines last month after it was revealed that former White House Staff Secretary Rob Porter was working with only an interim clearance because of spousal abuse allegations against him. Porter later resigned.

The security clearance process has been plagued in recent years with long backlogs as employees wait for their first clearance or for periodic reviews of their status. There is a backlog of about 710,000 cases, including about 337,000 applications for initial review, Phalen said. He said he hopes to reduce the backlog by 15% to 20% by the end of this year.