In latest reports associated with the White House, it is believed that the Chief of Staff John Kelly has shown ‘full confidence’ in Jared Kushner, over foreign policy related matters. On Tuesday, Kelly touted the abilities of senior adviser Jared Kushner, who apparently is also the son in law of President Donald Trump. Thus far, Kushner has not obtained a full security clearance but is considered good enough to continue in a senior role at the White House.
In a statement reported by ABC News, the White House Chief of Staff stated, “I will not comment on anybody’s specific security clearance situation or go beyond the memo released last week.”
“As I told Jared days ago, I have full confidence in his ability to continue performing his duties in his foreign policy portfolio including overseeing our Israeli-Palestinian peace effort and serving as an integral part of our relationship with Mexico,” Kelly continued.
The reason why Kelly has been full of confidence in Kushner’s senior role is that, of his abilities and the contributions, he can make in the campaign. “Everyone in the White House is grateful for these valuable contributions to furthering the President’s agenda. There is no truth to any suggestion otherwise,” Kelly added.
NEW: Gen. Kelly puts out a strong statement defending Jared Kushner’s status in the WH, says he has “full confidence” in his ability to continue Middle East peace & Mexico — Tara Palmeri (@tarapalmeri)
The White House released a memo last week, in which Kelly announced that the administration is looking to limited ‘temporary security clearances.’ In addition, the memo also stated that there are possibilities of cutting off certain clearances temporarily. This is for all those individuals whose clearance investigations have been pending since last June.
The released memo also mentioned the former White House aide and staff secretary, Rob Porter. Porter resigned a couple of weeks ago, due to facing allegations of domestic violence from his two ex-wives.
This does not mean that Kushner has no clearance at all. Jared Kushner has a temporary clearance that is about to be expired in the coming week, as issued by Chief of Staff John Kelly. The White House made it clear that the current memo will not impact the senior adviser role of Kushner.
The press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, told reporters, “I can tell you that no decision within the memo will impact anything that Jared Kushner is working on. In terms of specifics on security clearance, I can’t get into that.”
