Jared Kushner May Have Committed A Felony That Could Yield 5 Years In Prison
White House Senior Adviser Jared Kushner listens at left as President Donald Trump speaks during a Cabinet meeting — June 12, 2017, (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)
Lying to the US Federal government has not, does not, and will not end well. The simplest logic should prove this to be true for Senior Adviser to the President, Jared Kushner.
Experts tell me any clearance holder who failed to disclose 100 foreign contacts, as Kushner did, would be toast.
Willful omission on an SF-86 is — at its minimal offense — a felony. Offenders can also incur up to $10,000 in fines and/or face up to five years in prison. What has transpired with Kushner is above and beyond a careless omission. His behavior has prompted an FBI investigation and warranted intense speculation regarding his every move in the White House and beyond.
As we were all wont to say during the campaign and the initial weeks after the inauguration, this is not normal. You will be hard pressed to find someone who lied on this form and still has a job and a security clearance left to speak of. And at the risk of beating a dead horse, I’ll say it again: willful omission on an SF-86 is not normal. Regardless if the nationality of the contacts in question, there is no such thing as successful omission on these vital forms.
The expectation is simple. Tell the truth. Or don’t apply. Or lie and face a felony. — clearancejobs.com
The latest from the string of emails released last week by Donald Trump Jr., revealed a directly implicated Kushner in connection with the June 2016 meeting at Trump Tower in New York with Russian insiders who ostensibly wanted to offer team Trump dirt on Hillary Clinton.
As Rantt reported back in May regarding Kushner’s December 2016 meeting with Kislyak:
“The most generous interpretation is Kushner did not intend anything nefarious, he’s just so out of his depth that he stupidly played into the hands of a foreign adversary.”
Additionally:
Falsifying the SF-86 form is a felony, and the punishment could include prison time. At best, Kushner was too careless to avoid accidentally committing a serious crime. And he wants us to be okay with him conducting secret meetings on behalf of the United States, even though he’s incapable of remembering them.
Tweet from former Bush administration ethics lawyer
As we see now, a mere seven weeks after we published this story, the “generous interpretation” is a near foolish assumption that Kushner is ignorant in his dealings with both domestic and foreign powers. It is more likely to now believe that he is just as complicit as his wife.
From January to now, Kushner has had to update and resubmit his SF-86 to the FBI — each time with new meetings and contacts being added to the form. It begs the question as to why Kushner refused to offer up this information from the get-go: What about these contacts and meetings is so nefarious in nature that the effort to include them the first time was not seen poignant? Why wait to be called to the carpet to release the information?
Kushner and Co. have a tendency to make relatively simple objectives an increasingly difficult matter. Kushner has had to amend his SF-86 at least three times. In an amendment on May 11, Kushner added over 100 meetings with officials from over 20 countries. His June 21 amendment included the Trump Jr. meeting only after his lawyers discovered the emails. And over the course of at least 3 amendments, Kushner has had to add over 100 foreign contacts.
The double standard we are seeing is beyond glaring. Any other individual found to be omitting information on their security clearance form would be fired, if not prosecuted. Shouldn’t Kushner, by the very nature of who he is and the dignity of the office he holds, be held to a higher standard?
House Approps has rejected an amendment to strip Jared Kushner of his security clearance. Party line vote. https://t.co/ZqWyp0NwCc
Kushner has long been seen as a dark figure clothed in nepotism. His quiet persona and even quieter business dealings have earned him the reputation of being one who, while maybe not lurking in the shadows, definitely prefers working behind closed doors and speaking in hush tones. While there is nothing inherently wrong about not being a grandstanding showboat of a human being — how rare is that in politics — it is an added element to this mystery figure holding incredible, all but unchecked power.
As the story continues to unfold and details emerge, what remains unchanged is that the fate of Kushner will inevitably lay in the hands of his father-in-law. As media coverage on both sides has shown us, the fault is in the eyes of the beholder.
