Officials from Israel, Mexico, China, and the United Arab Emirates privately talked about ways they could control Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump's son-in-law and top adviser, a Washington Post report said on Tuesday, citing current and former U.S. officials. The concern over this activity contributed to the decision to strip Kushner of his top-secret clearance.
The foreign officials sought to take advantage of Kushner's business arrangements, financial difficulties, and lack of foreign policy experience, according to unnamed U.S. officials the report said were familiar with intelligence reports on the matter.
According to The Washington Post, Kushner's inexperience and business debt were "seen from the beginning of his tenure as potential points of leverage that foreign governments could use to influence him."
The paper added that White House officials voiced concern that Kushner was "naive and being tricked," as evidenced by the fact that some foreign officials refused to deal with more experienced White House personnel, demanding to deal "only with Kushner directly."
Kushner's lawyer Abbe Lowell did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the report. It was not clear whether any of the countries had acted on the talks about Kushner, but his business contacts with some foreign officials have raised concerns inside the White House.
These concerns, as well as other considerations, ultimately led to Kushner's security clearance being downgraded. Kushner, a wealthy New York businessman married to Trump's daughter Ivanka, has lost access to the President's Daily Brief, the most valued U.S. intelligence report, as the White House imposes greater discipline on access to secrets, U.S. officials said on Tuesday.
A White House spokesman for Kushner did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the Washington Post report.
Trump's national security adviser, H.R. McMaster, learned that Kushner had contacts with foreign officials that he did not officially report or coordinate through official channels, the report said. The foreign officials' beliefs of Kushner's vulnerabilities were items raised in McMaster's daily intelligence briefings, the report said
