Kushner is leading the Trump administration’s efforts to broker peace between Israelis and Palestinians, as well as trade negotiations with Mexico.
WASHINGTON — Jared Kushner, US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law leading a White House effort to forge Middle East peace, has lost his access to top secret information because of foreign government efforts to influence him, US media reported on Tuesday.
According to The Washington Post, the president’s national security adviser, H. R. McMaster, was briefed on efforts by Israeli and Mexican officials to leverage Kushner’s perceived vulnerabilities, including his business entanglements, his debt and his lack of foreign policy experience.
The Post report also claims that Kushner held meetings and conversations with foreign officials without going through the appropriate national security channels, breaching protocol and exposing Kushner to additional vulnerabilities.
Kushner is leading the Trump administration’s efforts to broker peace between Israelis and Palestinians, as well as trade negotiations with Mexico.
Officials from China and the UAE also discussed ways to manipulate the senior adviser, the Post reported.
Without Top Secret clearance, Kushner will no longer have access to some of the government’s most highly classified intelligence, including the president’s daily briefing — a document he once read each morning.
Kushner has been working for over a year on an interim clearance putting together a detailed plan for Israeli-Palestinian talks.
But leading that peace process also requires Kushner to produce highly classified information on a daily basis, current and former administration officials tell The Jerusalem Post. The White House insists that the new clearance decision, made by chief of staff John Kelly, will not affect Kushner’s work with either Israel or Mexico.
As reported by The Jerusalem Post