Has Jared Kushner Conspired to Defraud America?

Has Jared Kushner Conspired to Defraud America?

By MARCY WHEELERFEB. 28, 2018

Photohttps://static01.nyt.com/images/2018...-master768.jpg

Jared Kushner, the president’s senior adviser, has conducted foreign policy without officially disclosing all the personal interests he may have been serving. CreditAlex Brandon/Associated Press

Amid the dizzying details of internet trolls, almost a million dollars’ worth of antique rugs and fake bank accounts, the indictments brought by Robert Mueller, the special counsel, in his investigation of Russian tampering in the 2016 election have one thing in common.

Both the indictment of 13 Russians associated with a troll farm called Internet Research Agency and the indictment of President Trump’s onetime campaign chairman Paul Manafort accuse the defendants of pretending to engage in American politics in good faith but secretly serving someone else’s interest. In both cases, the charge, “conspiracy to defraud the United States,” is an assertion that they were really serving the interests of Russia or of a Russian-backed Ukrainian politician, and that by hiding their true intent, the defendants prevented the United States government from protecting our politics from undisclosed outside influence.

That precedent, and the guilty plea to the same charge by Rick Gates, Mr. Manafort’s deputy, may pose a real danger to Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law and senior adviser. According to reports, Mr. Mueller appears to be assessing whether Mr. Kushner, in the guise of pursuing foreign policy on behalf of the United States, was actually serving the interests of his family and foreign governments.

On Tuesday, The Washington Post reported that “officials in at least four countries” — United Arab Emirates, China, Israel and Mexico — “have privately discussed ways they can manipulate” Mr. Kushner by taking advantage of his “complex business arrangements, financial difficulties and lack of foreign policy experience.” The president gave his son-in-law an expansive foreign policy role, including an effort to negotiate peace between Israel and the Palestinians. The implication in the article is that the United States government has intercepted communications of foreign leaders talking about ways they could take advantage of Mr. Kushner, whose family real estate empire is facing substantial debt woes.

The biggest concern in the Post report — and surely one reason such intelligence led to Mr. Kushner’s being stripped of his interim top-secret security clearance last week — is that foreign countries would offer him personal financial benefits in the same conversations in which he purports to represent America’s best interests.

There has already been ample reporting suggesting that Mr. Kushner may have done just that. During a period when Mr. Kushner was negotiating President Trump’s first visit to China, his family business was trying to sell a debt-ridden property in New York to an insurance company with ties to the Chinese Communist Party. Public scrutiny of the deal scuttled it. Last May, The New York Times described how, immediately after the Trump administration extended a visa program for wealthy investors, Mr. Kushner’s sister invoked Mr. Kushner in a presentation seeking Chinese investment in one of the family’s New Jersey real estate developments.

Such appearances of conflict might not, by themselves, get Mr. Kushner in trouble. The president has broad authority to set the country’s foreign policy, and public corruption laws have been far more difficult to enforce after a 2016 Supreme Court decision overturning the conviction of the former Virginia governor Robert McDonnell on bribery charges.

But Mr. Kushner might face more trouble to the extent he keeps such negotiations secret from those in charge of carrying out United States foreign policy. When the national security adviser, H. R. McMaster, learned of some of Mr. Kushner’s communications only after the fact, he was surprised, one official told The Post, and thought it was “weird.”

Mr. Kushner has been famously tardy in disclosing his business interests and ties with foreigners in his application for a security clearance. He was still making updates to his forms as recently as January. That means he has conducted an entire year of foreign policy without officially disclosing all the personal interests he may have been serving.

Finally, the risk might be greater still if Mr. Kushner negotiated such deals before Mr. Trump’s inauguration. That’s the possibility raised by Mr. Kushner’s pre-inauguration meetings with Russia. In December 2016, Mr. Kushner met with Sergey Gorkov, the head of a bank under American sanctions, Vnesheconombank. That meeting came after Mr. Kushner suggested a back channel of communications in a meeting with Russia’s ambassador, Sergey Kislyak, according to Mr. Kislyak.
Nor did Mr. Trump’s transition team alert the Obama administration before Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan of Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates visited New York in December 2016 for a meeting involving Mr. Kushner and others at Trump Tower.

While the proper authorities may not have been informed of this series of meetings, Michael Flynn, the former national security adviser who pleaded guilty and agreed to cooperate with Mr. Mueller’s investigators late last year, did attend or at least knew of them. Steve Bannon, who recently sat for 20 hours of interviews with special counsel prosecutors, participated in the Zayed Trump Tower meeting along with Mr. Flynn and Mr. Kushner. So if they are a concern to Mr. Mueller, he has recently gotten far more details of what happened at the meetings.

Mr. Kushner’s defense attorney, Abbe Lowell, has been very forthcoming with the press. But he seems to have relied on the same on-the-record quotation since Feb. 16, when news first broke that Mr. Kushner might lose his interim security clearance. Twelve days ago, a statement from Mr. Lowell to The Washington Post directly addressed the gist of the story that just broke Tuesday. Mr. Kushner’s job, Mr. Lowell said, was “to talk with foreign officials,” which, he added, Mr. Kushner has done “properly.”

Perhaps Mr. Kushner is just a person who had no idea what he was doing and wanted to improve his and his family’s finances. Still, there are many reasons to question whether he has talked with foreign officials with the proper disclosures, designed to ensure that those claiming to represent the interests of the United States aren’t hiding their own interests or those of foreign governments.
In pursuing his investigation into Russian tampering, Mr. Mueller appears to be doing something more: restoring the regulatory teeth to ensure that those engaging in American politics are doing what they publicly claim they are. If Mr. Mueller extends this effort to foreign policy, Mr. Kushner may be in real trouble.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/28/o...pgtype=article

Kushner’s Family Business
Received Loans After
White House Meetings

Apollo, the private equity firm, and
Citigroup made large loans last year to
the family real estate business of Jared
Kushner, President Trump’s senior adviser.

By JESSE DRUCKER, KATE KELLY and BEN PROTESSFEB. 28, 2018

Jared Kushner’s tenure in the White House has been dogged by questions about conflicts of interest between his government work and his family business, in which he remains heavily invested.CreditTom Brenner/The New York Times

Early last year, a private equity billionaire started paying regular visits to the White House.

Joshua Harris, a founder of Apollo Global Management, was advising Trump administration officials on infrastructure policy. During that period, he met on multiple occasions with Jared Kushner, President Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser, said three people familiar with the meetings. Among other things, the two men discussed a possible White House job for Mr. Harris.
The job never materialized, but in November, Apollo lent $184 million to Mr. Kushner’s family real estate firm, Kushner Companies. The loan was to refinance the mortgage on a Chicago skyscraper.

Even by the standards of Apollo, one of the world’s largest private equity firms, the previously unreported transaction with the Kushners was a big deal: It was triple the size of the average property loan made by Apollo’s real estate lending arm, securities filings show.

It was one of the largest loans Kushner Companies received last year. An even larger loan came from Citigroup, which lent the firm and one of its partners $325 million to help finance a group of office buildings in Brooklyn.

That loan was made in the spring of 2017, shortly after Mr. Kushner met in the White House with Citigroup’s chief executive, Michael L. Corbat, according to people briefed on the meeting. The two men talked about financial and trade policy and did not discuss Mr. Kushner’s family business, one person said.

There is little precedent for a top White House official meeting with executives of companies as they contemplate sizable loans to his business, say government ethics experts.

“This is exactly why senior government officials, for as long back as I have any experience, don’t maintain any active outside business interests,” said Don Fox, the former acting director of the Office of Government Ethics during the Obama administration and, before that, a lawyer for the Air Force and Navy during Republican and Democratic administrations. “The appearance of conflicts of interest is simply too great.”

Lending Club

In 2017, Jared Kushner met multiple times in the White House with leaders of at least two financial institutions that subsequently made large loans to Mr. Kushner’s family real estate business, in which Mr. Kushner retains an interest.
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Jared Kushner

Joshua Harris

Mr. Kushner met multiple times with Joshua Harris, who was advising the administration on infrastructure issues.

PART OWNER

CO-FOUNDER

Apollo Global
Management

MANAGES

Apollo
Commercial
Real Estate
Finance

Kushner
Companies

In November, Mr. Harris’s company, Apollo, made a loan of $184 million to Kushner Companies.

Jared Kushner

Michael Corbat

In spring 2017, Mr. Kushner met at the White House with Citigroup’s chief executive, Michael Corbat.

C.E.O.

PART OWNER

Kushner
Companies

Citigroup

In March, Citigroup made a loan of $325 million to Kushner Companies and one of its partners.

By The New York Times

The White House referred questions to Mr. Kushner’s lawyer, Abbe Lowell, who did not dispute that the meetings between Mr. Kushner and the executives took place.

Peter Mirijanian, a spokesman for Mr. Lowell, said in a statement that Mr. Kushner “has met with hundreds of business people.” He said that Mr. Kushner “has taken no part of any business, loans or projects with or for” Kushner Companies since joining the White House and that he has followed ethics advice.

Christine Taylor, a spokeswoman for Kushner Companies, said Mr. Kushner’s White House role had not affected the company’s relationships with financial institutions. “Stories like these attempt to make insinuating connections that do not exist to disparage the financial institutions and companies involved,” she said.

An Apollo spokesman, Charles V. Zehren, said Mr. Harris was not involved in the decision to loan money to Kushner Companies. He said the loan “went through the firm’s standard approval process.”

A Citigroup spokeswoman, Danielle Romero-Apsilos, said Kushner Companies had been a bank client since before the election and that the relationship had no connection to Mr. Kushner’s White House role. She said Citigroup negotiated the 2017 loan with Kushner Companies’ business partner, a real estate developer.

Mr. Kushner’s tenure in the White House has been dogged by questions about conflicts of interest between his government work and his family business, in which he remains heavily invested. Mr. Kushner steers American policy in the Middle East, for example, but his family company continues to do deals with Israeli investors.

This blurring of lines is now a potential liability for Mr. Kushner, who recently lost his top-secret security clearance amid worries from some United States officials that foreign governments might try to gain influence with the White House by doing business with Mr. Kushner.
Photohttps://static01.nyt.com/images/2018...-master675.jpg

Michael L. Corbat, left, the chief executive of Citigroup, and Joshua Harris, a founder of Apollo Global Management, a private equity firm. Both men are said to have met with Jared Kushner at the White House in 2017. CreditFrom left: Laurent Gillieron/European Pressphoto Agency; Patrick T. Fallon, via Bloomberg Investigators working for Robert S. Mueller III, the special counsel looking into Russian interference in the 2016 election, have asked questions about Mr. Kushner’s interactions with potential investors from overseas, according to a person familiar with the matter. Mr. Kushner’s firm has sought investments from the Chinese insurer Anbang and from the former prime minister of Qatar.

Mr. Mirijanian, the spokesman for Mr. Kushner’s lawyer, said that Mr. Mueller had not sought from the Kushner Companies or Mr. Kushner “any information or document concerning any business dealing either has had.”

Mr. Kushner resigned as chief executive of Kushner Companies when he joined the White House last January, and he sold a small portion of his stake in the company to a trust controlled by his mother.
But he retained the vast majority of his interest in Kushner Companies. His real estate holdings and other investments are worth as much as $761 million, according to government ethics filings. They are likely worth much more, because that estimate has his firm’s debt subtracted from the value of his holdings. The company has done at least $7 billion of deals in the past decade.

Public filings show that Mr. Kushner still owns part of the company that received the Apollo loan. The loan was used to refinance a Chicago skyscraper that is the Midwest headquarters for AT&T. Mr. Kushner also still holds a stake in the entity that owns the Brooklyn buildings and received the loan from Citigroup.

Federal ethics regulations restrict government employees from participating in some matters that involve companies with which the official is seeking “a business, contractual or other financial relationship that involves other than a routine consumer transaction.”

Mr. Fox, the ethics expert, said Mr. Kushner risked violating the regulations in his meetings with Citigroup and Apollo executives.
Photohttps://static01.nyt.com/images/2018...-master675.jpg

Jared Kushner sat next to Leon Black, the chief executive of Apollo Global Management, at the 2016 US Open, a few months before the presidential election. CreditJean Catuffe/GC Images“Why does Jared have to take the meeting?” he asked. “Is there not somebody else who doesn’t have these financial entanglements who can brainstorm freely with these folks?”

The Trump administration no longer publicly discloses logs of visitors to the White House. In February, the White House settled litigation with Public Citizen, a nonprofit organization, and agreed to disclose some of that information.

Mr. Kushner has also met at the White House with Stephen A. Schwarzman, chief executive of the private equity firm Blackstone, which in the past has lent money to Kushner Companies for several projects, though all before the election. Until August, Mr. Schwarzman was the head of a White House business advisory council.

“Blackstone has not done any business with Kushner Companies since the election, nor has Steve ever discussed private business matters with Mr. Kushner,” said a Blackstone spokeswoman.
All of the executives who met with Mr. Kushner have lots to gain or lose in Washington.
Apollo has sought ways to benefit from the White House’s possible infrastructure plan. And its executives, including Mr. Harris, had tens of millions of dollars personally at stake in the tax overhaul that was making its way through Washington last year.

Citigroup, one of the country’s largest banks, is heavily regulated by federal agencies and, like other financial companies, is trying to get the government to relax its oversight of the industry.
Mr. Kushner has reported owning hundreds of partnerships, limited liability companies and other entities, but he is not required to disclose the lifeblood of any real estate firm’s business: its lenders and outside investors.

Some of the lenders can be pieced together through public records. The Apollo loan is disclosed in Chicago mortgage filings, which list the lender as “ACREFI Holdings J-I, LLC.” That vehicle is owned by Apollo’s real estate investment trust, securities filings show.
The loans’ interest rates and other key provisions are not disclosed.
Kushner Companies bought the Chicago building in 2007.

Apollo, best known for investing in companies such as Caesars Entertainment and Norwegian Cruise Lines, was founded by Mr. Harris, Marc Rowan and its current chief executive, Leon Black. Mr. Black and Mr. Kushner sat next to each other at the 2016 US Open, a few months before the presidential election.

Mr. Harris, a co-owner of the Philadelphia 76ers and the New Jersey Devils, is Apollo’s senior managing director. He also is an adviser to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
Early last year, the White House enlisted Mr. Harris and other executives to advise the administration on infrastructure policy. Over a period of months, Mr. Harris met regularly with Mr. Kushner and other White House officials.

Apollo made the loan to Kushner Companies on Nov. 1, 2017, according to public records.
Apollo does not make real estate loans directly. Instead, it makes them through a so-called real estate investment trust, called Apollo Commercial Real Estate Finance. The trust is a publicly traded company with its own set of shareholders. It is managed by Apollo, which charges the trust management fees, and has no employees of its own.

One of the largest investors in Apollo’s real estate trust is the Qatari government’s investment fund, the Qatar Investment Authority.

296COMMENTSMr. Kushner’s firm previously sought a $500 million investment from the former head of that Qatari fund for its headquarters at 666 Fifth Avenue in Manhattan. That investment never materialized.

Shortly after Kushner Companies received the loan from Apollo, the private equity firm emerged as a beneficiary of the tax cut package that the White House championed. Mr. Trump backed down from his earlier pledge to close a loophole that permits private equity managers to pay taxes on the bulk of their income at rates that are roughly half of ordinary income tax rates. The tax law left the loophole largely intact.
Photohttps://static01.nyt.com/images/2018...-master675.jpg

Mr. Kushner’s firm had sought a $500 million investment from the former head of the Qatari government’s investment fund for its headquarters at 666 Fifth Avenue in Manhattan.CreditKarsten Moran for The New York Times

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/28/b...pgtype=article

Below an action opp from Wilderness Watch. It discloses a jarvanka connection to the Chilean billionaire seeking to mine the area.

Tell Interior Secretary Zinke and the U.S. Forest Service Chief Tooke to protect the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness by not renewing the Twin Metals mining leases!

On the Friday before Christmas, the Trump Administration released a new legal opinion that may allow the renewal of two mining leases adjacent to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness so a company owned by a Chilean billionaire can construct a copper and nickel mine in the watershed of the Boundary Waters Wilderness.
The Chilean billionaire, Andrónico Luksic, also happens to be renting a mansion to President Trump’s daughter Ivanka and son-in-law Jared Kushner.
The legal opinion from Trump’s Interior Department doesn’t immediately green-light the toxic sulfide mine within the Boundary Waters Wilderness watershed, so please take action to stop one of the most toxic forms of mining, which has caused environmental and financial problems all over the world!

The Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness is America's most popular and water-rich Wilderness. Its 1.1 million acres contain more than 1,000 pristine lakes and 1,200 miles of rivers and streams. The lakes, rivers, and streams of the Boundary Waters watershed are among the cleanest waters in North America, and are especially sensitive to acids and heavy-metals found in copper mine pollution.

You may recall that these expired mining leases were previously not renewed by the U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management due to the extreme environmental risk they pose to the Boundary Waters Wilderness. In fact, the Forest Service received over 125,000 comments opposes these mining leases, including 10,195 comments from Wilderness Watch members and supporters, and almost no comments in support of leasing.
Under the mineral leasing laws, the Department of Interior (DOI) issues mineral leases on all federal lands. However, the Forest Service has veto power over any leases issued on the national forests. Therefore, both the Forest Service and DOI must approve any decision to lease the lands next to the Boundary Waters.


Priceless and irreplaceable, the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness must not be put at risk of perpetual water pollution from the most toxic industry in America!

https://wildernesswatch.salsalabs.or...ase/index.html

Jared Kushner's problems are only just beginning

By Jen Psaki
Updated 1:24 PM ET, Wed February 28, 2018

(CNN)Jared Kushner's security clearance downgrade is not the end of the story, unless you are talking about his diplomatic career. That is over.

Despite the claim by both White House Chief of Staff John Kelly and Kushner's lawyer that "the new clearance policy will not affect Mr. Kushner's ability to continue to do the very important work he has been assigned by the President," it will do exactly that.

The reliance on Jared Kushner as the primary negotiator for everything from Middle East peace to trade deals to the United States' relationships in Asia has been dying a slow death over the last year due to a combination of his lack of experience, lack of respect from world leaders and the actions of his boss and father-in-law, President Donald Trump. The official loss of his interim top security clearance should come as no surprise. A valid question the White House should have to answer is why it took so long.

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After working in the White House on and off for eight years and traveling around the world for two years with an actual top diplomat, Secretary of State John Kerry, I can confirm without a doubt that it is not possible to be on the front lines of diplomacy as the chief representative of the United States without the highest level of security clearance.

Why? Because a top-level security clearance gives access to information and insights into foreign powers, their leaders and their thinking about ongoing issues that gives chief negotiators a leg up. And it is impossible to do the job of chief negotiator or chief representative for the president without it.

We don't actually know the real reason for the downgrade, but Kushner's portfolio changes are the least of his problems.

If you believe White House spin, the memo sent to White House staff, including to Jared Kushner, that informed them that their security clearance had been downgraded, was all part of an effort by Chief of Staff John Kelly to take a significant step in clearing the deck of high-level employees with interim security clearances.

Donald Trump had the power to override that decision -- but he didn't. And Kushner's father-in-law, the President, hasn't exactly shied away from breaking the rules, conflicting his own public commitments or making decisions that are clearly conflicts of interest. But he didn't on Kushner's behalf, even though it will significantly reduce his portfolio.


https://cdn.cnn.com/cnnnext/dam/asse...m-plus-169.jpg

The more likely reasons for Kushner's downgrade affect far more than his job responsibilities.

New reports surfaced on Tuesday that not one, but four foreign powers-- the United Arab Emirates, China, Israel and Mexico -- had been discussing ways to influence Kushner. Why? Because of his lack of experience, knowledge and his financial vulnerabilities.

Jared Kushner's problems are only just beginning

Revelations like these would prompt immediate calls for a brand new congressional investigation in almost any other administration.

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Ivanka Trump cheers #MeToo movement after defending her father


This is further public fuel for the investigation that is already ongoing under Robert Mueller.

Not because there are new specifics about Russia's influence or contacts, but because these reports confirmed that Jared Kushner is a prime candidate for foreign powers to target and to attempt to influence. Because it shows that his naiveté, lack of experience, poor judgment and financial issues had more than just the Russians licking their chops at the prospect of getting closer to Trump.

Jared Kushner's pursuit of Middle East peace may be dead. But questions about his contacts and engagements with foreign powers are just beginning.

https://www.cnn.com/2018/02/28/opini...aki/index.html

President Trump's son-in-law or not, Kushner is not worth the risk or distraction he is causing.

Kushner isn't creating a risk or causing a distraction. The Trump Haters and DemoQuacks are doing that including the FBI. Now they're investigating Ivanka for a Trump Hotel deal she was involved with in ..... Canada.

:lol:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Judy

Kushner isn't creating a risk or causing a distraction. The Trump Haters and DemoQuacks are doing that including the FBI. Now they're investigating Ivanka for a Trump Hotel deal she was involved with in ..... Canada.

:lol:

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Oh yes he is. His repeated failure to include all the information required on his security clearance paperwork was just the beginning. A lie by omission is still a lie. From there his actions just became more shady. The Kushner story seem to be evolving by the day ...... stay tuned.

Hmmm. Why do you think you know that he didn't include all the information required on his security clearance paperwork?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Judy

Hmmm. Why do you think you know that he didn't include all the information required on his security clearance paperwork?

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Mistakes on Jared Kushner's security clearance application at level ...

• Mistakes on Jared Kushner's security clearance application at level 'never seen before' by background check officials

Mr Kushner revised his forms four times

www.independent.co.uk › News › World › Americas › US politics
Oct 13, 2017 - Mistakes on Jared Kushner's security clearance application at level 'never seen before' by background check officials. Mr Kushner revised his forms ... That includes four addenda to the form, with more than 100 errors. Read more ... The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation. 17 show all ...

Jared Kushner didn't disclose ties to Soros, Thiel, Goldman Sachs ...

www.businessinsider.com/jared-kushner-ties-george-soros-goldman-sachs-peter-thiel-...
May 2, 2017 - Jared Kushner didn't disclose business ties to George Soros, Peter Thiel, and Goldman Sachs, or that he owes $1 billion in loans. Veronika Bondarenko ... Gorelick also said a revised version of Kushner's form that includes Cadre would be made available once ethics officials have looked at it. Kushner also ...


Jared Kushner left a lot off his financial disclosure | New York Post

https://nypost.com/2017/05/.../jared-kushner-didnt-disclose-stake-in-real-estate-startup...
May 2, 2017 - Kushner, President Trump's son-in-law and top adviser, didn't note on his government financial disclosure form that he is a part-owner of real estate finance firm Cadre, which matches investors with real estate projects, the Wall Street Journal reported. Cadre's other investors include Goldman Sachs, ...


Jared Kushner disclosure form left out stake in tech startup Cadre ...

https://www.marketwatch.com › Economy & Politics › The Wall Street Journal
May 2, 2017 - Trump son-in-law's fellow investors in the tech startup are believed to include George Soros and Peter Thiel. ... The Cadre stake is one of many interests—and ties to large financial institutions—that Kushner didn't identify on his disclosure form, according to a Wall Street Journal review of securities and ...

Hmmm. All security clearance investigations are confidential and classified. It seems that those with security clearances with purported knowledge of Kushner's security clearance inquiries have violated their own security clearance.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Judy

Hmmm. All security clearance investigations are confidential and classified. It seems that those with security clearances with purported knowledge of Kushner's security clearance inquiries have violated their own security clearance.

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The info comes from an open "House subcommittee oversight hearing."
---------------------------------------------

Background check chief has 'never seen' mistakes and omissions at level of Jared Kushner forms

By Kara Scannell, CNN
Updated 1:59 AM ET, Tue February 13, 2018

(CNN)The head of a government bureau responsible for clearing background checks told lawmakers Wednesday he has "never seen that level of mistakes" when asked about numerous omissions in Jared Kushner's security clearance application.

Charles Phalen, the director of the National Background Investigations Bureau, a newly created division within the Office of Personnel Management, made the comment in response to a question during a House subcommittee oversight hearing.

Democrats have called on the White House to revoke security clearances granted to Kushner, President Donald Trump's son-in-law and senior adviser, and Ivanka Trump over reports of their use of personal email accounts and Kushner's multiple updates to his security clearance questionnaire, known as SF-86, for failing initially to include meeting with foreign officials.

Democrat Raja Krishnamoorthi of Illinois asked Phalen, "can you recall if there has ever been an applicant having to submit four addenda detailing over 100 errors and omissions being able to maintain their security clearance once those errors and omission have been identified?"

Phalen said he has not seen "the breadth" of all applications "but I have never seen that level of mistakes."


Earlier in the hearing, Phalen noted that OPM did not handle the fact checking of Kushner's application. "I don't know in the particular cases you're talking about because we had no visibility in our organization into any of those activities. Those were done by other organizations."

Kushner's initial SF-86 form did not mention any foreign contacts, though he quickly supplemented it to indicate that he would provide that information. He updated the form in the spring, listing about 100 contacts, but did not mention the June 2016 meeting he attended with Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya, Donald Trump Jr., and former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort. He updated the SF-86 forms once more in June to include that meeting.

Once the meeting was publicly revealed in press reports, it created a firestorm of interest especially after emails revealed Trump Jr. agreed to the meeting after being promised"very high level and sensitive information" that would "incriminate" Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, though Trump Jr. says no such information materialized.

Trump campaign officials' meetings with foreign nationals are of interest to Justice Department Special Counsel Robert Mueller's team and Congressional committees investigating Russian interference with the election.

Jamie Gorelick, an attorney for Kushner, said Thursday, "as we have previously stated, Mr. Kushner's SF-86 was prematurely submitted and, among other errors, did not list any contacts with foreign government officials. The next day, Mr. Kushner submitted supplemental information stating that he had had "numerous contacts with foreign officials" about which he would be happy to provide additional information. He submitted that supplemental information to the FBI and is cooperating fully with its background investigation."

In July, Kushner released a statement saying it was an inadvertent mistake. "I did not remember the meeting and certainly did not remember it as one with anyone who had to be included on an SF-86," Kushner said.

Earlier that month Gorelick expanded on the reason for the multiple amendments to the application form, noting, "he has since submitted this information, including that during the campaign and transition, he had over 100 calls or meetings with representatives of more than 20 countries, most of which were during transition. Mr. Kushner has submitted additional updates and included, out of an abundance of caution, this meeting with a Russian person, which he briefly attended at the request of his brother-in-law, Donald Trump Jr. As Mr. Kushner has consistently stated, he is eager to cooperate and share what he knows," Gorelick said.

A OPM spokesman said Phelan's comments was "taken out of context" but did not elaborate.

https://www.cnn.com/2017/10/12/polit...orm/index.html

LOL!!

Quote:

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The National Background Investigations Bureau (NBIB) is a semi-autonomous U.S. Government agency housed within the United States Office of Personnel Management (OPM) that is responsible for conducting security clearance investigations into individuals who need to hold security clearances for employment purposes. Creation of the agency was announced in January 2016.[1] NBIB is the primary service provider of background investigations for the U.S. Government and conducts approximately 95 percent of government-wide background investigations for more than 100 federal agencies.[2] The agency's background investigation information technology (IT) systems will be designed, built, secured, and operated by the United States Department of Defense.[3]

The NBIB Director is Charles S. Phalen, Jr., who formerly served as Vice President of Corporate Security for Northrop Grumman Corporation. Director Phalen has more than 30 years of federal service, most recently serving as Director of Security for the Central Intelligence Agency and Assistant Director, Security Division, for the Federal Bureau of Investigation.[4] NBIB Special Agents go through training consisting of four weeks of classroom instruction in the Federal Background Investigator Training Program (FBITP), a field investigator course, and one year of on-the-job training.[5] The agency's National Training Center (NTC) and training programs are accredited by the Federal Law Enforcement Training Accreditation (FLETA) Board, and the American Council on Education (ACE) awards twelve undergraduate credits to those who successfully complete and pass the FBITP.[6] NBIB replaces OPM's Federal Investigative Services following a series of intelligence failures[7] and investigations conducted into USIS (company) for contract fraud.

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nation...gations_Bureau

FOX WATCHING THE HEN HOUSE.

Disgusting.

Trump needs to take charge of all his security clearances and bring them in-house inside the White House. That's his Constitutional power to protect his administration from a coup, which in my opinion is what is being attempted here. All background information during a security clearance is confidential and classified never to be revealed to the media or Congress in any type of public setting.

Judy wrote (excerpt):

Quote:

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Trump needs to take charge of all his security clearances and bring them in-house inside the White House.

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Wow, talk about the fox watching the hen house!

No, Trump is the Big Rooster running the hen house and he needs to run all these dopey crooked CIA and FBI derelicts out of our government.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Judy

No, Trump is the Big Rooster running the hen house and he needs to run all these dopey crooked CIA and FBI derelicts out of our government.

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It's President Trump, not King Trump. Just wanted to clear that up.

What was confusing you? You think our government is run by the FBI and CIA? It probably has been which is why everything is such a mess. Trump will fix it.

Another Leak: Kushner’s Business Got $500+ Million In Loans After He Met With Banks At White House

ALLAHPUNDITPosted at 11:21 am on March 1, 2018

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You have to feel for poor Ben Carson, who’s watching the extended Trump family convert their political influence into riches while he gets raked over the coals for $31,000 in dining room furniture.
SEE ALSO: Condi Rice to Adam Schiff: ‘I really hope you can wrap it up’

You have to feel for Omarosa too. She took a beating in the media for using her presidential connections to host bridal events at the White House. Meanwhile, Prince Jared was holding court on the premises with banks who later went on to approve mega-loans for his family business, the sort of sleaze that would have given right-wing media weeks of material if, say, Chelsea Clinton had swung it under President Hillary.

Don’t the lower-ranking guys in this syndicate get a cut? Why should the Trumps be the only ones in the administration to have fun splashing around in the Washington swamp?

Joshua Harris, a founder of Apollo Global Management, was advising Trump administration officials on infrastructure policy. During that period, he met on multiple occasions with Jared Kushner, President Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser, said three people familiar with the meetings. Among other things, the two men discussed a possible White House job for Mr. Harris.

The job never materialized, but in November, Apollo lent $184 million to Mr. Kushner’s family real estate firm, Kushner Companies. The loan was to refinance the mortgage on a Chicago skyscraper.
Even by the standards of Apollo, one of the world’s largest private equity firms, the previously unreported transaction with the Kushners was a big deal: It was triple the size of the average property loan made by Apollo’s real estate lending arm, securities filings show.

The Kushner family’s firm got a $325 million loan from Citigroup last year too not long after the company’s CEO met with Jared to discuss “financial and trade policy.” Everyone involved naturally insists that the transactions were above board: Jared no longer works for the family business, Harris didn’t take part in the loan consideration process, Citigroup had had the Kushner firm as a client before, etc. But Jared hasn’t divested from the business. The Trump family’s basic indifference to conflicts of interest has allowed him to maintain the majority of his holdings in the firm even as he meets with potential creditors to discuss government matters, so he’s profiting directly from their decisions. And loan officers at the banks surely don’t need direct pressure from the top to have their decisions about the Kushner firm influenced by political considerations. If you work for Citigroup or Apollo and you know the CEO has an “in” in the West Wing with an advisor as powerful as Jared, you’re going to think very, very carefully about declining credit to the Kushner family business.

As I say, all of this would be instantly apparent to Republicans if Chelsea Clinton were the beneficiary instead of Jared Kushner. Trump himself would be doing entire “Crooked Hillary” riffs about it on Twitter, and rightly so. How strange it is, though, that we’re only finding out about these highly dubious meetings now, many months after they took place. Just like it was strange that we only found out on Monday that Kushner had maintained his own foreign contacts as a diplomat without sharing them with the NSC. There sure are a lot of damaging leaks about Jared all of a sudden, now that John Kelly’s downgraded his security clearance. It’s almost as if Kelly and his allies are airing Kushner’s dirty laundry to the press to justify Kelly’s decision to downgrade him, and to put pressure on Trump not to grant Jared any special waiver from the clearance process. CNN reported last night that Kushner has seemed increasingly “paranoid” lately about people in the White House being out to get him, but is it paranoia if people really are out to get you?

Kushner, whose business dealings and wide portfolio have been the subject of intense scrutiny, told people that he suspected the timing of the story about his foreign contacts was coordinated to be released when issues surrounding his security clearance were in the news, according to a source familiar with his thinking, who described his demeanor in recent days as paranoid…

Kushner also feels that he has come under fire from his own West Wing colleagues recently, with the notion that “everyone is out to get him,” a source said. This person noted that Kushner remains exasperated by Kelly’s decision to overhaul the security clearance process, feeling that it is mainly directed at him. He has been asking others, “Why is John Kelly doing this?”

I’m guessing Kelly’s doing it because the Rob Porter clusterfark was a thorn in his and Trump’s side for the better part of two weeks and there are plenty of reasons to believe Kushner is even more compromised than Porter was by his private dealings. If news breaks tomorrow that the president’s extremely influential son-in-law has been selling influence to foreign diplomats — and/or is being indicted by the special counsel for shady dealings abroad — that’s easily the worst crisis of Trump’s presidency so far. The chief of staff is supposed to protect his boss, right? Well, pushing Kushner out is an obvious way to protect him, even if Trump doesn’t realize it.

One X factor, though. With Hope Hicks on her way out and Javanka’s status in the White House suddenly shaky, POTUS is on the brink of being left all alone without anyone left from his inner circle. Reporters were tweeting last night that that’s a bad place to be for a man who famously seems to trust no one apart from family (or near-family like Hicks). I wonder if that’s why Trump is suddenly leaning on Kelly to find jobs in the West Wing for Corey Lewandowski and Anthony Scaramucci. As confidants like Omarosa and Keith Schiller have departed, he may have convinced himself that they need replacing with other old-school Trump cronies. Kelly may succeed in shedding Hicks and Kushner but at the price of installing Scaramucci and Lewandowski in their place. Will that make his job easier or harder?

Here’s Scaramucci this morning exacting some revenge on the man who fired him last year by insisting that morale in the White House under Kelly is at an all-time low. I wonder if he’s working with Jared and Ivanka on the sort of arrangement I speculated about yesterday vis-a-vis Lewandowski: If Trump cronies outside the White House can save Javanka by convincing Trump to fire Kelly, Jared and Ivanka may reward them by going to bat for them with new White House jobs once Kelly’s gone.

https://hotair.com/archives/2018/03/01/another-leak-kushners-business-got-500-million-loans-met-banks-white-house/?utm_source=hadaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign= nl

Senator says Kushner must go if he swayed foreign policy against Qatar for personal financial reasons

https://aol-releases-assets-producti...7/A38EAC81.jpgDANIEL MARANS
Mar 4th 2018 12:50PM

Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) said Sunday “if it’s true” that White House senior adviser Jared Kushner swayed U.S. foreign policy against Qatar for personal financial reasons, he “has to go.”

“If it’s true, it’s damning. If it’s true, Jared Kushner has to go,” Murphy, a prominent voice on foreign policy, said of President Donald Trump’s son-in-law on ABC News’ “This Week with George Stephanopoulos.”
The Intercept reported on Friday that representatives of Kushner Companies, including Kushner’s father, Charles Kushner, met with Qatari Finance Minister Ali Sharif Al Emadi in New York in April in a bid to secure Qatari financing for the firm’s distressed signature property, 666 5th Avenue.

There was a follow-up meeting between Kushner Companies representatives and Qatari officials the following day. But a deal never materialized.

RELATED: Where Jared Kushner has traveled since becoming Senior Advisor

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Where Jared

Then, in early June, a coalition of nations led by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates abruptly severed diplomatic relations with Qatar. They proceeded to blockade the small, natural gas-rich nation, ostensibly in retaliation for Qatar’s support of islamist movements abroad and cordial relationship with Iran. The blockade remains in effect.

Trump surprised many in the diplomatic community by initially backing the Saudis and Emiratis so whole-heartedly. Qatar, a longtime American partner, is home to a key strategic base for the U.S. military in the Middle East where thousands of troops are deployed.

“We could not understand why the Trump administration was so firmly taking the Saudis’ side in this dispute between the Saudis, the Emiratis and Qatar, because the United States has very important interests in Qatar,” Murphy said Sunday.

Murphy noted the large U.S. troop presence in Qatar.

RELATED: Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner in Saudi Arabia, Israel

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“To so firmly take the side of the Saudis against the Qataris that could potentially result in the downward spiral of the Qatari economy put thousands of Americans at risk,” he said.

Jared Kushner’s friendship with UAE Ambassador to the United States Yousef al-Otaiba and Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman raised suspicion at the time he had encouraged Trump to take a hard line against Qatar.

News of the Kushner family’s attempts to gain Qatari financing for a family-owned property raises the prospect that Kushner advised the president to side with the Saudis and Emiratis for personal financial reasons.

If verified, that should be grounds for Kushner’s ouster, Murphy said.

“If the reason this administration put U.S. troops at risk in Qatar was to protect the Kushners’ financial interests, then that’s all the evidence you need to make some big changes in the White House,” he said.

NBC News reported Friday that special counsel Robert Mueller is investigating whether Kushner’s business discussions with foreign powers during the presidential transition, well before his father’s April 2017 meeting, later influenced American foreign policy. In addition to Qatari representatives, Kushner met with figures from Turkey, Russia, China and the United Arab Emirates, according to the report.

The potentially damaging revelations about Kushner surfaced during an already punishing week for the Trump relative and confidant. Kushner, who had enjoyed a temporary top-secret security clearance, saw his clearance downgraded by the White House to merely “secret.”

Although the justification for the downgrade was not immediately clear, experts note that it was unusual for someone to have a temporary clearance for so long without receiving permanent access. The White House’s decision not to grant him a permanent security clearance likely sprang from intelligence agencies’ concerns that foreign governments have tried to influence him and that he initially failed to report his meetings with officials from those governments.

Also speaking on “This Week,” former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R), a onetime Trump transition team chief, implied that Kushner and his wife, Ivanka Trump (who’s also a White House adviser), should consider stepping down from their posts for the good of the president. (As a United States attorney, Christie sent Kushner’s father to prison, which likely chilled his relationship with Jared.)

Asked by Stephanopoulos whether Trump should fire Kushner, Christie responded, “The president’s going to have to make that judgment.”

He went on to suggest that Kushner and Ivanka might do well to spare Trump the difficulty of spurning family members by volunteering their resignations.“The situation is made much worse by the fact that we have family members in the White House,” he said. “So for Jared and for Ivanka and for all the other members of the family who were involved in one way or the other, I think everybody’s got to focus on what’s best for the president.”

https://www.aol.com/article/news/201...sons/23376507/

Jared Kushner has 'got to go' if reports about his role in Qatar blockade true: Leading Democrat

• By ALLISON PECORIN
• QUINN SCANLAN Mar 4, 2018, 2:18 PM ET

https://s.abcnews.com/images/Blotter...2_12x5_992.jpgPlayJason Szenes/EPA/REX/Shutterstock
WATCH Senate Democrat: Gun reform won't happen if Trump is 'not willing to lead'
A leading Democratic senator said Sunday that White House senior adviser Jared Kushner needs to leave his post if recent reports are true alleging the Trump son-in-law took a position on certain Middle East political issues in response to his family's business interests.
The Intercept reported that Kushner’s father, Charles Kushner, sought financial support from the Qatari financial minister for the family business’s 666 Fifth Avenue property in New York City but failed to get it. Weeks later, Jared Kushner backed diplomatic moves, including a blockade, by Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and other neighboring countries against Qatar, the Intercept reported.
“If it’s true it’s damning,” Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told ABC News Chief Anchor George Stephanopoulos on "This Week" Sunday. “If it’s true he’s got to go.”

https://s.abcnews.com/images/Politic...02_4x3_992.jpgAndrew Harnik/AP, FILE
President Donald Trump speaks to White House Senior Adviser Jared Kushner, left, in the Oval Office in Washington, D.C., April 21, 2017.
Murphy also said that the administration's support of the blockade could have endangered U.S. troops stationed in Qatar.
“If the reason that this administration put U.S. troops at risk in Qatar was to protect the Kushners’ financial interests, then that’s all the evidence you need to make some big changes in the White House,” Murphy said.
The Intercept reported that a White House spokesperson referred questions to Kushner Cos., whose spokesperson said, “We don’t comment on who Charlie meets with,” and added, “We don’t do business with any sovereign funds.”
Last week, Jared Kushner’s top-secret security clearance was downgraded after White House chief of staff John Kelly imposed new rules about clearances. The background check on Kushner for his security clearance has gone on more than 15 months as officials examine issues in his application, sources have previously told ABC News.

In addition to the report about Kushner and Qatar, The New York Times reported Wednesday that early in 2017, Kushner allegedly held multiple meetings at the White House with executives from two major Wall Street companies. After the meetings, the companies allegedly loaned more than half a billion dollars to Kushner Cos., the Times reported.

President Trump has privately expressed concerns about the potential legal trouble Kushner’s family business ties could pose for his presidency, a source previously told ABC News.
In another interview on "This Week" Sunday, former White House chief of staff Reince Priebus said the fact that Kushner is Trump's son-in-law makes the allegations about him more difficult for the president.
“It does make it more complicated with family,” Priebus said.

https://s.abcnews.com/images/Politic..._23x16_992.jpgAndrew Harnik/AP, FILE
Ivanka Trump and her husband Jared Kushner, senior adviser to President Donald Trump, attend a news conference with the president and German Chancellor Angela Merkel in the East Room of the White House in Washington, March 17, 2017.

Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, an ABC News contributor and Trump ally, said some had advised the president against giving staff roles to family members.
“There were many of us who counseled the president… [about] members of his family having official positions, not because they weren’t competent or qualified or that the president didn’t trust them, but because when circumstances come up that the president couldn’t have been aware of, and in a normal situation, you might terminate a staff member for that reason,” Christie said.

Kushner, who has divested from parts of the family real estate company, has denied any wrongdoing in a statement. Kushner Cos. also said in a statement obtained by ABC News that his role in the White House has had no impact on their business dealings.
“To suggest that Jared, when taking on his role in the White House, has suddenly affected our long-standing relationships or that we do business differently than we have in the past is made up and without substantiation,” the statement read.

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/jared...ry?id=53487405

Ann Coulter thinks Jared Kushner wrote the anonymous op-ed bashing Trump (I agree)

Started by ALIPAC, 09-13-2018