Democratic Reps. Ted Lieu (D-CA) and Don Beyer (D-VA) on Tuesday asked Attorney General Bill Barr to conduct a criminal probe into the ongoing controversies surrounding senior adviser and Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner’s security clearance.
In a letter to Barr, Lieu and Beyer said they were “deeply disturbed” by the latest developments — that Trump ordered his then-chief of staff John Kelly to ignore intelligence officials’ concerns and grant Kushner clearance — combined with reports that Kushner omitted foreign contacts on initial iterations of his application form. Kushner reportedly excluded his contacts with more than 100 foreign officials, including the Russian ambassador, on his initial form.
Late last month, the New York Times reported that Trump demanded Kushner receive top secret clearance, even after he had to correct his form multiple times. Kelly reportedly documented the demand in a memo.
“More than an act of blatant nepotism, the President’s actions so threatened the integrity of our national security apparatus that Mr. Trump’s chief of staff felt the need to document the order through a contemporaneous memo,” the two wrote in the letter to Barr, asking the DOJ to probe whether Kushner’s actions are criminally liable.
“Right on the form it says if you make false statements or omit material facts you can be punished up to five years in prison,” Lieu expanded during an appearance on CNN Tuesday afternoon. “Jared Kushner had to submit two forms, actually he had to submit three forms, the first two were false and misleading. So he should absolutely be investigated.”
Lieu and Beyer ask DOJ to conduct criminal probe into Kushner's security clearance pic.twitter.com/BK3Cn7zdZb
— TPM Livewire (@TPMLiveWire) March 5, 2019
Read the letter to Barr below:
