Trump lied about Kushner’s top secret security clearance

Trump lied. He did order the security clearance for Kushner, ignoring the advice of his advisers. (He’s legally entitled to do it but it was bad for our security.) The new revelations have hung Kushner’s lawyer, Lowell, out to dry and he is distancing himself from the actions by implying he didn’t know what happened.

Jared Kushner’s clearance is more of a national security threat than Hillary Clinton’s e-mail server.
— Bill Kristol (@BillKristol) March 3, 2019

Clinton was wrong but as far as I know, no harm was done. It’s not like Trump giving classified intelligence to the Russians in the White House.

ICYMI: @AshaRangappa_ breaks down why it's so concerning that Trump lied about Jared Kushner's security clearance. pic.twitter.com/MXEvKDpmVb
— Protect the Investigation (@NoOneIsAboveLaw) March 2, 2019

If he simply took Jared and Trump’s handlers word that this was done on the up and up, it doesn’t reflect well on him https://t.co/VEF8yQF83Z
— Norman Ornstein (@NormOrnstein) March 2, 2019

I am not trying to get "top level security clearance" for my children. This was a typically false news story.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 16, 2016

This is a lie if you count his son-in-law.

Lowell’s statement means Kushner not only failed to tell him of Trump’s intervention but failed to do so even after Lowell publicly vouched for the lack of presidential intervention. If Kushner knew of Lowell’s statement (how could he not?), it says volumes about his character. https://t.co/6z7MieFcGQ
— Walter Shaub (@waltshaub) March 2, 2019

You're not kidding it's remarkable. Kushner's attorney Abbe Lowell is essentially telling the world that his client lied to him. I have never seen anything like this. https://t.co/wStXSHRW9t
— Elizabeth de la Vega (@Delavegalaw) March 2, 2019

Abbe Lowell is (as far as I'm aware) a well-respected lawyer. And no (good) lawyer would — or ethically can — go out and repeat things about their client that they know to be false. This only reveals how deep the deception goes in this circle. https://t.co/O7LE5IdpOg
— Asha Rangappa (@AshaRangappa_) March 2, 2019

Trump's corrupt, nepotistic grant of security clearance to Kushner may blow up in his face.

House Dems can subpoena memos from John Kelly and Don McGahn arguing against the move.

I spoke to legal experts about this. It's a ticking time bomb.

My piece: https://t.co/mpPGz3HcaJ
— Greg Sargent (@ThePlumLineGS) March 1, 2019

A good foreign intel officer could own Kushner in months. His financial vulnerabilities, greed, situational ignorance, dubious foreign contacts, ethical disregard, self-importance and dismissal by more seasoned officials make it too easy. That’s why he shouldn’t have a clearance.
— Evan McMullin (@EvanMcMullin) March 1, 2019

BREAKING: @RepCummings staff just asked WH staff if the Kelly and McGahn memos on #Kushner security clearance exist. WH staff refused to confirm or deny—three times. https://t.co/OGKRIpAsQm
— Oversight Committee (@OversightDems) March 1, 2019

A key point: not only are the facts of the decision to override important, but so is the reason why security professionals were so reluctant to grant Kushner the clearance in the first place. https://t.co/VMqRlTdObN
— Ronald Brownstein (@RonBrownstein) March 2, 2019

To remind: Here's why Jared Kushner was never supposed to get a clearance

"Officials in at least 4 countries privately discussed ways they can manipulate Jared Kushner..using his financial difficulties and lack of experience."
Me W @shaneharris @jdawsey1 https://t.co/cejnYVT4qm
— Carol Leonnig (@CarolLeonnig) March 1, 2019

Trump’s bigoted tweet on the Trail of Tears

Trump referred to the TRAIL in a tweet on Warren. Once again, he’s a bigot – and Trump, Jr. is proud of it.

Trump appears to mock “Trail of Tears” – Presidential historian @profdbrinkley says it’s “fair game” to criticize @SenWarren, but this went way too far: #TrailofTears #CNN pic.twitter.com/0fioqr4yms
— Brooke Baldwin (@BrookeBCNN) February 11, 2019

Trump's racist Elizabeth Warren taunts have entered a new phase | Analysis by CNN's Zachary B. Wolf https://t.co/sOsLfr2t1p pic.twitter.com/p0cFI38K1I
— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) February 11, 2019

Trump will get real nasty for the 2020 election, especially if it appears he would be indicted once he is no longer president. There’s no bottom to his bigotry.

Jake Tapper calls out Trump Jr.’s "blatant racism" https://t.co/kgfyu0W7ME
— The Daily Beast (@thedailybeast) February 11, 2019

1) President makes joke about a time the US government killed thousands of Native Americans 2) People point out he did that 3) President’s son applauds president for doing that 4) Fox guy mocks people for suggesting president is knowledgeable enough to do that https://t.co/wTrx20X8Ll
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) February 10, 2019

beyond base https://t.co/gT5FJbqNc9
— George Conway (@gtconway3d) February 11, 2019

There is no way that Donald Trump, who talks about how much he loves Andrew Jackson all the time, does not know about the Trail of Tears. There is no other interpretation of this tweet that I understand. He is making a joke about genocide against Native Americans. https://t.co/71DuX0mhy0
— Ben Dreyfuss (@bendreyfuss) February 9, 2019

The president's use of the word trail in all caps is a potential reference to the Trail of Tears, the forced relocation of Native Americans from their homelands to reservations in Oklahoma in the 1800s. https://t.co/TJ4mgmAvZY
— USA TODAY (@USATODAY) February 10, 2019

This is deliberate, not a potential mockery.

When high school kids taunt opponents with “Trail of Tears” references, they get suspended: https://t.co/sM3ME6FtQE

When the President of the United States does it, Republicans celebrate him.

We hold children to higher standards than we hold the President of the United States.
— Timothy Burke (@bubbaprog) February 10, 2019

How Fox News covered Trump's "Trail of Tears" genocide joke: “You can recognize a historical tragedy while at the same time also making fun of someone who misrepresented themselves.” https://t.co/Cp4zVnbEFS
— The Daily Beast (@thedailybeast) February 11, 2019

Trump appears to make Trail of Tears joke in tweet mocking Elizabeth Warren https://t.co/hJOw3cjYGz
— The Daily Beast (@thedailybeast) February 10, 2019

If you thought Trump was too historically ignorant to joke about genocide, think again. pic.twitter.com/OjHkg54VmJ
— Eric Columbus (@EricColumbus) February 10, 2019

That this racist joking about the Trail of Tears comes from the President is awful. That 66,000 people (and counting) liked it might be even more depressing. https://t.co/Av0p4HZTWN
— Christina Reynolds (@creynoldsnc) February 10, 2019

I try to never dignify this man’s tweets, but there is little doubt here that he uses “TRAIL” to evoke the genocidal Trail of Tears, and does so to land a political jab. Warren has taken justifiable heat on this issue—but he used the murders of Indigenous people as a punchline. https://t.co/LiyK2iruDF
— Jamil Smith (@JamilSmith) February 9, 2019

To conservatives defending Trump's Native American-themed taunts toward Elizabeth Warren as mockery of her shaky claims of being NA: If a candidate had misrepresented himself as Jewish, would you say it's fine to mockingly refer to him as "Shlomo" & make jokes about ovens?
— Cathy Young (@CathyYoung63) February 11, 2019

Trump and Iran

Ivanka claimed that she isn't worried about Mueller because the family never did business with Iran:https://t.co/1lRnMX55Yd

Let me explain how they did, in fact, almost certainly do business with Iran.

Everything I write here is acknowledged by the Trump Org.

1/
— Adam Davidson (@adamdavidson) February 9, 2019

Trump campaign paying Jared/Ivanka legal fees

Trump’s campaign is asking his working class base to pay the legal fees of his millionaire dilettante son in law https://t.co/7hAS3FDQtD
— Dan Pfeiffer (@danpfeiffer) February 8, 2019

Trump, Jr’s calls with blocked numbers

It turns out that Trump, Jr.’s calls to a blocked number were to family friends and not to Trump. That still leaves lots of questions:

Did Trump know about the meeting? He says he didn’t but he lies all the time. If he got the calls, this would have proven he knew but it still doesn’t put him in the clear.
Why did they lie about the meeting? Trump prepared a false statement saying it was about adoptions.
If the calls were to business associates, why didn’t Trump, Jr. just provide that information?

NEWS: Senate investigators have obtained information that shows Donald Trump Jr.'s calls with a blocked number surrounding the Trump Tower meeting were NOT with his father, but with two business associates. W/ @PamelaBrownCNN @mkraju https://t.co/IGZFmZnNPS
— Jeremy Herb (@jeremyherb) January 31, 2019

Trump Jr.'s calls ahead of 2016 Trump Tower meeting weren’t with his father

"[This] new information doesn't change the fundamental concern about what the President knew. It just means he wasn't those blocked numbers — not that he didn't know about the meeting." – @ChrisCuomo pic.twitter.com/52wgF7bW1Q
— Cuomo Prime Time (@CuomoPrimeTime) February 1, 2019

.@DonaldJTrumpJr on the speculation the blocked numbers had belonged to his father: “After a year of hearing about this one ad nauseam, yet another left-wing narrative officially bites the dust.” https://t.co/Fh6Z3BWeqU
— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) February 1, 2019

He could have just told us who he called.

Didn’t say it exonerated Trump. Just said it undermined the case because there had been widespread suspicion that Don Jr had called the old man prior to meeting. https://t.co/5OLRgNicN3
— Max Boot (@MaxBoot) February 1, 2019

“I believe that there are serious questions about Donald Trump Jr.’s appearance before our committee … I’m suggesting there are serious questions. He needs to come back before the committee. He ought to be subpoenaed,” says Dem @SenBlumenthal of the Senate Judiciary Committee. pic.twitter.com/e1p3jppEtZ
— The Situation Room (@CNNSitRoom) January 31, 2019

As investigators learn Trump Jr.'s blocked calls weren't w/ his father, Rep @GerryConnolly notes theirs is a relationship where "son really wants to make daddy happy," adding it "stretches credulity to believe he never told" his dad about the 2016 meeting.https://t.co/VnqsQ77xjX pic.twitter.com/2OAn3H96sk
— OutFrontCNN (@OutFrontCNN) February 1, 2019

The fact that Trump Jr’s phone calls to blocked numbers around the time he set up the Trump Tower meeting weren’t with his Dad is not proof the two didn’t discuss the meeting in some other setting. https://t.co/EqviGVLHzF
— Joyce Alene (@JoyceWhiteVance) February 1, 2019

Per CNN and ABC: Don Jr.'s blocked phone calls before Russia meeting weren't to Trump. These are the calls Adam Schiff considered suspicious and planned to probe. https://t.co/8JwPYUZmuw
— Jonathan Swan (@jonathanvswan) February 1, 2019

Kushner shouldn’t have a Top Secret security clearance

Two House Democrats asked acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney to immediately revoke senior White House adviser Jared Kushner's security clearance https://t.co/tIuSNoSXEf pic.twitter.com/FSBctIXFr9
— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) January 31, 2019

If you’re not paying attention to this story, you should be. Our intelligence and national security professionals recommended that Kushner and others should not receive a Top Secret clearance and they were overruled by the White House.

Our national security is at stake. https://t.co/L26eNwrV40
— Renato Mariotti (@renato_mariotti) January 29, 2019

Officials rejected Jared Kushner for top secret security clearance, but were overruled https://t.co/4afEJbyEig
— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) January 25, 2019

In May 2018, Kushner’s criminal defense lawyer said he’d received permanent clearance. What he didn’t say was that a Trump hire overruled two career adjudicators to grant the clearance & the CIA denied him a higher level clearance. https://t.co/QHL6mSYzue
— Joyce Alene (@JoyceWhiteVance) January 25, 2019

Agreed. Anyone familiar with the process knows it's virtually impossibly Jared—or Ivanka for that matter—would be approved for a TS/SCI considering the known issues. To have it confirmed is still the makings of a massive scandal.

Get them out of the White House, immediately. https://t.co/tXfQwfUUOL
— Susan Hennessey (@Susan_Hennessey) January 25, 2019

1/ Having worked on security clearance issues at the White House, this story is terrifying. It is not normal for the head of the Personal Security Office to ever overrule the career employees who adjudicate clearances. This says it's happened 30 times in the last 1.5 years! https://t.co/aO3hF9LDwZ
— Daniel Jacobson (@Dan_F_Jacobson) January 25, 2019

In other words, they got overrruled on determining Kushner was denied clearance. https://t.co/yCCJ01t6M8
— Juliette Kayyem (@juliettekayyem) January 29, 2019

Trump organization fired undocumented workers who worked at Trump golf club for years

.@realDonaldTrump's golf club in NY state employed undocumented workers for years — then fired 12 of them, en masse, during the shutdown.
Trump Org. said it had just discovered their papers were fake.https://t.co/skvSEuGwRe

— David Fahrenthold (@Fahrenthold) January 28, 2019

Hear from Margarita Cruz, who was fired for being undocumented after working for Trump's Westchester golf course for eight years. And hear the audio she recorded of her own firing, in this amazing video from @DDaltonBennett and @jnebraska https://t.co/PCBUyxe88d

— Rosalind Helderman (@PostRoz) January 26, 2019

He could have joined e-verify. But he didn’t. https://t.co/gQgKDAkN82 https://t.co/9VFgKD6Qif

— Maria Sacchetti (@mariasacchetti) January 29, 2019

Trump has described them as rapists and thugs, but his golf courses have relied on undocumented migrants for years. "I'd never done anything wrong, only work and work," said one who worked 15 yrs at NJ course — until he was fired amid wall showdown. "I started to cry." @partlowj https://t.co/eJblLwCA1E

— Greg Miller (@gregpmiller) January 27, 2019

7 questions about Trump’s use of undocumented workers at his golf courses, answered by the reporters who broke the story, @fahrenthold and @partlowj. Starting with, "How did The Post find these workers?" https://t.co/gemX4OQ9BJ

— Peter Wallsten (@peterwallsten) January 28, 2019

Until Trump’s NY golf course fired a dozen undocumented workers in recent days, the odds of encountering an illegal immigrant there were much greater than at the one on the border https://t.co/5FDxKCk9FU

— The Daily Beast (@thedailybeast) January 29, 2019

Undocumented workers get no gov’t benefits, yet many pay taxes. Today I met some of the undocumented women you hired at your golf club in my district. Your people arranged their fake papers and then withheld their Social Security taxes. https://t.co/bwbSCGhcv8

— Tom Malinowski (@Malinowski) January 29, 2019

Um….?

Eric Trump: It’s ‘truly heartbreaking’ that NBC made Trump golf course look bad for firing undocumented workershttps://t.co/255S3lVltz

— Raw Story (@RawStory) January 29, 2019