Trump's Son-in-Law Jared Kushner's Security Clearance Downgraded

Jared Kushner, the son-in-law of US president Donald Trump has had his white house security clearance downgraded following new white house rules imposed by General John Kelly, Mr Trump's chief of staff. 

Kelly made the move to limit the number of people with top-level security clearance after it was revealed that former staff secretary, Rob Porter, had been able to work with interim security clearance despite allegations of domestic abuse. 

Mr Kushner, who is married to Mr Trump's daughter Ivanka (also a senior advisers to her father), had been receiving top-level security briefings and had access to the President's Daily Brief. Kushner had been tasked with brokering peace in the Middle East and also liaising with Mexico despite having no experience in politics.

He faced problems with his background checks in the process of obtaining a permanent security clearance and had been working with interim clearance. He and other White House aides who have yet to receive permanent clearance will no longer have access top-level briefings.

Reports says was Mr Kushner was informed of the decision on Friday and his spokesman Josh Raffel was asked to leave the White House hours before news of the change in Mr Kushner's status

Politico quoted the 37 year old's lawyer Abbe Lowell as saying that it would "not affect Mr Kushner's ability to continue to do the very important work he has been assigned by the president".

A spokesperson for Mr Kushner also told the BBC: "Those involved in the process again have confirmed that there are dozens of people at Mr Kushner's level whose process is delayed, that it is not uncommon for these clearance reviews to take this long in a new administration, and that the current backlogs are now being addressed."

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