Kushner addresses security clearance after whistleblower raises concerns

White House senior adviser Jared Kushner on Monday reacted to concerns over his security clearance, saying that during his time in the White House he has been “accused of all different types of things” that “turned out to be false.”

“Over the last two years that I’ve been here, I’ve been accused of all different types of things and all of those things turned out to be false. We’ve had a lot of crazy accusations, like that we colluded with Russia,” Kushner said during an interview on Fox News’s “The Ingraham Angle.”

His comments come after House Oversight and Reform Committee Chairman Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) on Monday released a memo revealing that Tricia Newbold, a White House security adviser, told the committee that the Trump administration overruled her and other officials to grant security clearances to 25 individuals despite red flags.

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“According to Ms. Newbold, these individuals had a wide range of serious disqualifying issues involving foreign influence, conflicts of interest, concerning personal conduct, financial problems, drug use, and criminal conduct,” the memo states.

The New York Times reported in February that President Trump ordered Kushner be given top-secret security clearances despite concerns raised by the intelligence community. Monday’s memo does not mention Kushner or any other specific individuals, but Reuters reported Monday that Kushner and Ivanka Trump, who are married, are among the individuals who received clearance despite the advice of experts.

Kushner added on Fox News that he disclosed all of his holdings to the Office of Government Ethics at the start of Trump’s presidency.

“When I came to Washington, I had a very successful business career,” he said. “I had extensive holdings. I disclosed all my holdings to the Office of Government Ethics. … They told me what to divest, what to keep, what rules to follow.”