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Ivanka Trump Denies President Was Involved in Granting Security Clearance
Ivanka Trump, President Trump’s daughter and senior adviser, denied that her father was involved in her obtaining a security clearance.CreditCreditSarah Silbiger/The New York Times
By Maggie Haberman
- Feb. 8, 2019
Ivanka Trump made the remarks during an interview with the ABC News host Abby Huntsman in an interview for “The View.”
“There were anonymous leaks about there being issues,” Ms. Trump said. “But the president had no involvement pertaining to my clearance or my husband’s clearance, zero.”
Asked what had delayed her security clearance, as well as the clearance for Mr. Kushner, Ms. Trump replied, “There weren’t any, other than a backlog that exists of close to a million clearances across government.”
Her comments marked the first time that she has spoken about the clearance issue that dogged both her and her husband for the first year of the administration. She described the delays — which lasted into May 2018 — as part of a normal course of business.
“This isn’t new,” Ms. Trump said. “This was happening under the Obama administration, the Clinton administration.”
Mark Zaid, a lawyer who specializes in security clearances, said that Ms. Trump was citing a backlog that does not apply to her or her husband, given their special status as presidential family members and the ability of the White House to ask for expedited clearances for high-ranking advisers.
“Her comment is not as black and white as she portends it to be,” Mr. Zaid said.
She and Mr. Kushner, who has a broad portfolio including Middle East policy, received clearances last year, after what multiple officials within government described as delays caused by concerns that the F.B.I. and the C.I.A. flagged about their foreign contacts and private business.
The questions surrounding their clearances lingered for many months. But when Mr. Kushner received a clearance in 2018, his lawyer, Abbe Lowell, described it as a normal process.
“With respect to the news about his clearances, as we stated before, his application was properly submitted, reviewed by numerous career officials and underwent the normal process,” Mr. Lowell said at the time. “Having completed all of these processes, he’s looking forward to continuing to do the work the president has asked him to do.”
A report by NBC recently revealed that career White House security specialists had rejected Mr. Kushner’s clearance twice, but were overruled by their supervisor. A senior administration official confirmed that account to The New York Times.
In a recent interview with The Times, Mr. Trump said he had no role in getting officials to give his son-in-law a clearance.
