Democrats target Ivanka Trump security clearance amid Kushner scrutiny

WASHINGTON — A group of 20 House Democrats is calling on the FBI to review Ivanka Trump’s security clearance as her husband and presidential adviser, Jared Kushner, is under scrutiny for failing to disclose meetings with Russians during and after her father’s presidential campaign.

Kushner has updated his disclosure forms multiple times, including to account for a meeting at Trump Tower with several Russians including Kremlin-linked lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya and Russian-American lobbyist Rinat Akhmetshin.

“We are concerned that Ivanka Trump may have engaged in similar deception,” the House Democrats wrote in a letter obtained by USA TODAY. The July 19 letter to FBI acting director Andrew McCabe notes that disclosure laws require declaration of foreign contacts by the clearance holder’s spouse and siblings.

It asks whether President Trump's daughter listed on her application Kushner's meetings, including another one with former Russian ambassador Sergei Kislyak and an official from a sanctioned Russian bank. Further, “Did she accurately disclose her own foreign contacts in her initial filing, which reports suggest may be numerous?” wrote, the lawmakers, led by Rep. Don Beyer of Virginia. Beyer is a former businessman, lieutenant governor of Virginia and ambassador to Switzerland. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Top Democrats want Kushner’s security clearance revoked. And, over the weekend, Maine Sen. SusanCollins, a moderate Republican, also said she had concerns, including about Kushner's inability to accurately record his contacts. Collins said it “is an issue we need to look at."

Beyer has been pressing for Kushner’s clearance to be suspended since April, after the New York Times reported that Kushner failed to disclose meetings with foreign government officials in the application process for a top-secret security clearance.

“The juxtaposition of their public and private roles may be murky and confused, but her obligation to disclose her families' and her foreign contacts is not,” said the lawmakers.

“The high standard to which we hold public servants, particularly senior advisers to the President of the United States, requires that these questions be raised, and promptly answered,” they said.

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