President Donald Trump ordered his chief of staff to give Jared Kushner, his senior adviser and son-in-law, a top security clearance last year, The New York Times reported.
The president’s order last May overruled the concerns voiced by intelligence officials and the White House’s top lawyer, the newspaper reported, citing four unnamed sources.
The White House chief of staff at the time, John F. Kelly, wrote an internal memo claiming he had been "ordered" to provide Kushner with the high-level clearance, the Times reported.
Donald F. McGahn II, the White House counsel in May 2018, also wrote an internal memo outlining his concerns and his belief that Kushner should not be given top-secret clearance, according to the newspaper.
The memos contradict statements the president told the Times in January, when he told the newspaper he had no role in Kushner's clearance.
White House press secretary Sarah Sanders told the newspaper that "We don't comment on security clearance."
Kushner, 38, who has been married to the president’s daughter, Ivanka Trump, since 2009, became a senior White House adviser in January 2017.
Before joining the White House staff, Kushner was the CEO of Kushner Companies, a real estate development firm founded by his father, Charles Kushner. He also was publisher of the New York Observer.
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