Jared Kushner’s role as a senior adviser in Donald Trump’s White House has reached a pivotal moment after it was reported that the presidential son-in-law lost access to America’s top secrets and may be a target of foreign countries.



The Trump administration was initially rocked by reports on Tuesday that Kushner, who previously enjoyed unfettered access to the country’s most classified and sensitive information, had his security clearance downgraded along with a host of other White House aides.

Within hours came another bombshell – that Kushner was viewed as a possible target for manipulation by four countries due to his financial conflicts of interest and lack of experience in policy and politics.

The fresh controversy over Kushner – who was already a subject of scrutiny as a potentially key figure in the Russia investigation – laid bare the ramifications of Trump’s decision to place his son-in-law in one of the most high-ranking positions in the White House.

It also raised key questions over how Kushner can continue in a role that boasts a wide-ranging portfolio spanning Middle East negotiations, steering US relations with China and reforming federal bureaucracy.

“I think his problem is his credibility is really undermined by the fact that nobody trusts him. That’s a serious problem,” said Richard Painter, a vocal critic of Trump who served as the chief White House ethics lawyer for President George W Bush from 2005 to 2007.

If this had been any other administration, Painter added, Kushner “would have been shown the door”.

Kushner’s security clearance has been a subject of scrutiny throughout his tenure at the White House. Kushner, who is married to Trump’s elder daughter, Ivanka, had to make numerous corrections to his security clearance forms following revelations that he ommitted dozens of financial holdings on his initial forms. Kushner also failed to disclose dozens of foreign contacts, including two meetings with Russian officials during the presidential transition period.

The intricate web of Kushner’s potential conflicts of interest reached new heights on Tuesday, when the Washington Post reported that the United Arab Emirates, China, Israel and Mexico had privately discussed “taking advantage of his complex business arrangements, financial difficulties and lack of foreign policy experience”.

The report also alleged that Kushner did not use proper channels to make contacts with officials from foreign governments, often failing to inform the national security adviser, HR McMaster.

Spokespeople for Kushner sought to mitigate the fallout from the two stories, insisting that he had complied with the security clearance process and dismissing the Washington Post report as “secondhand hearsay with rank speculation”.

Of Kushner’s security clearance, his lawyer Abbe Lowell said: “No concerns were raised about Mr Kushner’s application.

“The new clearance policy will not affect Mr Kushner’s ability to continue to do the very important work he has been assigned by the president.”

But officials who served in previous administrations questioned how Kushner could continue to have influence without what is known as Top Secret/SCI-level clearance.

Kushner’s downgrade meant he lost access to the president’s daily brief, the most highly classified document to reach Trump’s desk, although the president has the unilateral authority to share classified information as he sees fit, including with his son-in-law, despite the clearance downgrade.

Samantha Vinograd, a CNN national security analyst who worked in the Obama White House for four years and also served under the Bush administration, said the range of activities that Kushner has been charged with leading are mostly handled at the top-secret level.



“Either Kushner continues doing his role and Donald Trump continues to abuse the system and let Jared Kushner see intelligence that’s above his clearance grade, or Jared Kushner is going into these meetings to represent the US with a drop in the bucket when it comes to the intelligence on these issues,” Vinograd told the Guardian.

“Donald Trump would be sending Kushner into meetings knowing that he certainly could not be effective or efficient,” she added.

Trump told reporters last week that he has entrusted John Kelly, his chief of staff, with determining the fate of Kushner’s security clearance. Although Kelly did not sign the memo downgrading Kushner’s clearance, the chief of staff had privately expressed discomfort with the delay in Kushner’s background check and his role in the White House more broadly.

Kelly had pledged improvements in the White House’s handling of security clearances in the wake of the scandal over Rob Porter, who served as Trump’s staff secretary but was forced to resign this month after being accused by both of his ex-wives of domestic violence.

During the controversy it emerged that Porter had access to highly sensitive and classified documents for more than a year without a permanent security clearance, and continued to hold that access after the FBI had raised red flags during the course of his background check.

Michael O’Hanlon, a senior fellow in foreign policy at the Brookings Institution, said Kushner’s downgrade was ultimately a positive outcome for a White House seeking to regain some of its footing.

“Kushner is a capable guy, but also young, and the potential for conflicts of interest was a good reason to revoke his clearance (or reduce it),” said O’Hanlon.

O’Hanlon said he did not believe it was necessary for Kushner to step aside from the White House entirely; the change in his clearance, he said, “will help streamline and channel his contributions in what probably should have been the direction chosen from the start”.

“In short, it’s not a scandal, what happened, but it would have been better to start the whole thing where we are now winding up, with a more limited if still important role for Kushner.”

Trump could still overrule the decision and grant Kushner a permanent security clearance. But doing so would risk placing him at further odds with his national security team.

Trump campaigned aggressively on the notion that Hillary Clinton had mishandled classified information due to her use of a private email server as secretary of state. The White House has insisted there are avenues for Kushner to maintain his foreign policy portfolio, but concerns remain between the competing factions of the West Wing over whether or not the president will personally intervene on his son-in-law’s behalf.



“This isn’t a Kushner problem,” said Painter. “This is a Trump problem.”