I agree with Greg Sargent that President Trump’s decision to ignore the assessment of his own intelligence community and grant his son-in-law a top security clearance is something that could really blow up in his face. The president certainly has the authority to grant anyone a security clearance. He can also unilaterally declassify anything he wants, no matter how dangerous it might be to do so. The only check on this power is impeachment. Still, giving Jared Kushner a security clearance could wind up being a larger political problem than some people are anticipating.
A lot will depend on whether or not the public learns the specific reasons why there was so much resistance to Kushner getting the clearance. We’ve certainly heard drips and drabs, and Nancy detailed what is publicly known this morning. I suspect the full story is even more damning, and my theory is supported by the fact that both then-White House counsel Don McGahn and then-White House chief of staff John Kelly were both so opposed that they memorialized their concerns in writing.
There are two ways that this could become a much bigger scandal. The first is that people might be appalled that the president overruled everyone considering what they have learned about the rationale for the denial. The second is that the might be appalled primarily by what they’ve learned about Kushner.
If Kushner is exposed in a very serious way, that will reflect badly on Trump in two ways. The first is that the Kushner/Trump relationship is not just a marriage but also a family alliance coming out of the shady world of New York real estate. It’s unlikely that there any many business reasons for denying a Kushner a security clearance that wouldn’t equally apply to a Trump. The second problem is that Trump has given Kushner such a big portfolio, including the responsibility of trying to negotiate a Middle East peace plan. If Kushner is discredited, it’s going to bleed over into Trump’s foreign policy and call into question how responsible he has been in conducting the nation’s business.
Even if the worst that comes out of this is that Trump is forced take away Kushner’s extensive portfolio and remove him from the White House, that will be a severe blow to him. He doesn’t really trust anyone outside of his family, and he’s already extremely isolated after having churned through several iterations of top staff.
The sad truth, however, is that the intelligence community would never grant a security clearance to the president, let alone his kin.
He’s considered a counterintelligence threat.
Did you see the subtweet from @FBIRecordsVault ? https://twitter.com/FBIRecordsVault/status/1101542664317460480
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I think I’m getting your drift there.
It might be dangerous to remove Javanka from the White House team (they are a team), since that would isolate Trump even more. As stupid and venal as they both are, they are still exposed to more people and more information than Trump.
His decision making is erratic enough as it is, God help us if he gets worse as the circle closes down. I have an image of Trump in the White House launching a nuclear attack like Martin Sheen in “The Dead Zone.” When that film came out, I thought “what nonsense! That could never happen!” I don’t know that I think that way now.
I really believe this to be true.
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Trump is in many ways a tragic figure. As Cohen testified, he only ran as a marketing scheme for his real estate empire. Nobody expected him to win, least of all Trump. The Clintons even encouraged him to run, thinking he’d make the best possible foil for Hillary.
And then the GOP base took him seriously, and managed to scrape him over the bar. He found himself in the White House, but he just isn’t interested in governing in any serious way.
Now, the only reason he’s holding onto power is his desperate need for attention, and his real fear that every crooked deal that passed unnoticed (except for the victims) now will land him in federal court.
It’s win or die. Cohen is right, he’ll never willingly leave the White House, they’ll have to physically seize him and drag him out. And 40% of the voters are so insane they think it’s a coup by the “Deep State” to get rid of their hero if anybody talks of indicting him for his many crimes or even defeating him in 2020.
Well said.
My hangup is when people claim `he will never willingly leave the WH, they will have drag him out’.
You know the routine of a presidential switch, right? They leave for the inauguration in the morning, and while they are gone, all personal items are removed. Plus, once the inauguration happens, secret service rules, and laws kick in. If he refused to go to the inauguration, once it was done, he would be escorted to the door, and shoved in a car.
Don’t doubt the Secret Service has gamed this out.
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The essence of comedy is ridiculous distortion of character. Trump is a bizarrely distorted person. The essence of tragedy is nobility brought down by a tragic flaw. Trump consist of almost nothing but personal flaws. If you see any nobility there, that’s more than I can do. All he is is bluff and tinsel. And I’m not saying that out of anger (though I have plenty). I saw him that way from the start, decades before he was president.
Trump is not a tragic figure, he’s a cosmically comic figure — even though the joke’s on us. Lady Liberty is the tragic figure here.
Certainly the huge portfolio and the directive to force the security clearance go hand in hand. The embarrassment of handing over so much of his foreign policy to someone who is then denied access to sensitive intel that would be a necessity to tackle the jobs is bombshell enough.
And then he and his tribe lie about it. Over and over again. Trump could easily have claimed the privilege as you point out to just wave his magic presidential wand. But he chose to lie in interviews, going so far as to say that ‘I don’t even know if I have the power to do that’…after he had just done it.
The bigger question is what has Jared done with the intel. How many times has he used it for personal gain for himself and the future of Trump Org? Has he used it to play one foreign entity against another? Pretty good chance he has. Has he used the opportunities to pass along backchannel info between Trump and world leaders he favors?
And just as importantly, how many NSA wiretaps have caught Jared, how many of our allies’ intel community players recognize Jared for what he is and are surveiling him?
There’s no doubt Jared has been compromised. It was my understanding that security clearances had to be reviewed and updated on a regular basis. If not now, when?
And how many are listening to Trump, with his habit of using insecure phones.
It boggles the mind. Everything, and I mean everything, points to all of them being flat out assets. There’s not a shred of exculpatory evidence.
They are so throughly modern American Capitalists, that they sold themselves.
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. . . informed speculation — that Khashoggi is dead because Jared tipped off his buddy MBS about Khashoggi’s impending trip to Turkey?
If Kushner is discredited, it’s going to bleed over into Trump’s foreign policy and call into question how responsible he has been in conducting the nation’s business.
So the top Democrats would stop supporting Trump’s attempted coup in Venezuela? Haha!! Who are we kidding!
“…call into question how responsible he has been in conducting the nation’s business.” I actually started laughing when I read this. The notion that anyone beyond the most fanatical of the Trumpistas hasn’t long concluded that Trump is totally irresponsible and, in fact, criminal in conducting the nation’s business is just laughable.
But, of course, the GOP will shrug this off, too.