U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz is continuing to go after President Donald Trump — by targeting his son-in-law Jared Kushner’s security clearance.
The Democrat who represents parts of Broward and Miami-Dade counties plans to introduce legislation this week to create the White House Security Clearance Accountability Act.
The move is a response to New York Times reporting that Trump ordered granting of a top-secret security clearance to Kushner — overriding objections from intelligence agencies.
“The president continues to jeopardize our national security in service of his own personal interests,” Wasserman Schultz said in a statement released by her office. Assuming the report is accurate, she said it is “yet another dangerous example of the president’s flagrant disregard for our national security.”
The legislation would revoke the security clearance of a White House employee who lies about contacts with foreign nationals on their security clearance forms and anyone under investigation by a federal law enforcement agency for aiding a foreign government — provisions Wasserman Schultz believes would cover Kushner.
The president’s son-in-law is a senior adviser to the president.
The legislation would also require the Government Accountability Office to report on “any instance” during Trump’s presidency in which a White House official received a security clearance over the objection of career security staff.
With Republicans in control of the Senate, Wasserman Schultz’s legislation has no real chance of becoming law.
But with Democrats now in control of the House, her proposal could advance farther than her last attempt to go after Kushner’s security clearance.
In 2017, Wasserman Schultz offered amendments in the House Appropriations Committee that would have revoked Kushner’s security clearance under the same criteria as her latest attempt: revoking the clearance of a White House staff member criminal investigation for aiding a foreign government or deliberately omitting meetings with foreign governments from their security clearance forms.
Republicans then controlled the House and stopped her effort, which U.S. Rep. John Carter, R-Texas, dismissed as “purely a political stunt.” U.S. Rep. John Culberson, R-Texas, said they were “utterly unnecessary.”