The Classifieds

Source: Wikimedia Commons

Earlier this week, Jared Kushner's security clearance was downgraded from top secret to secret. What, exactly, does that mean?

First, we must understand how the United States' security clearance system works.

The current system by which the United States government classifies information is stated in Executive Order 13526. It was signed on December 29, 2009, by Barack Obama. It should be noted that this executive order did not establish our classification system, but is instead the latest in a series of executive orders, each of which has modified the system slightly. The system was originally established by Bill Clinton in 1995 through Executive Order 12958.

The system laid out in Executive Orders 12958 and 13526 uses three levels of classification: confidential, secret, and top secret. Information is categorized into these levels based on how dangerous it would be if released. Confidential information only causes "damage to the national security," whereas secret and top secret information cause "serious damage" and "grave damage," respectively.

There is one additional category of classified information: Sensitive Compartmented Information (SCI). This category is entirely outside of the system described previously; instead of being established by executive order, it was established by the Director of National Intelligence (DNI). In addition, clearance is only given out for certain "compartments" of information, rather than the entire designation. More details can be found in the DNI Classification Guide.

For the purposes of this blog post, I'll only be focusing on the classified information established by executive order. Here are a few key features of this information:

• Only the President, Vice President, appointed agency heads, and specifically delegated government officials may classify, reclassify, or declassify information.
• Having security clearance for one classification automatically grants security clearance for all lower classifications.
• Higher security clearances require more stringent background checks.
• A security clearance does not guarantee access to information; the person requesting the information must have a valid reason for the request.

This is by no means a comprehensive rundown of the security clearance process in America; instead, these are all of parts of the system relevant to Jared Kushner. Why did Jared Kushner, whose only qualification seems to be being the president's son-in-law, have top-secret security clearance? What was his reason for even requesting such information?

Well, Kushner is a senior adviser to the President, and in this role he had been placed in charge of a laughably long and varied list of jobs:

• Achieving peace in the Middle East
• Dealing with the Opioid Crisis
• Enacting criminal justice reform
• Being a liaison to Mexico, China, and the Muslim community

Of course, Kushner isn't really doing any of these things - he's an investor, not a policy expert - but I suppose that his responsibilities were deemed far-reaching enough that he needed access to our nation's most guarded secrets.

So why did Kushner have his clearance downgraded? If any of you have read any of the news surrounding Kushner's downgrade, then you may have noticed that it's not just Kushner; dozens of White House aides are having their security clearances downgraded in a similar fashion. That's because none of these aides, Kushner included, actually had security clearances; instead, they all had interim security clearances.

There's nothing nefarious about interim security clearances. They're just security clearances granted before the sometimes lengthy background check process is complete. But in the case of the White House, not only were all of these aides operating on interim security clearances, but, according to the memo John Kelly wrote detailing the changes, they had all been operating on these interim security clearances since at least last June.

Last June?! That's more than a year and a half ago! Even the longest background checks don't last much more than a year and a half, and even if they did for one aide, the chances of them lasting that long for dozens are astronomically small. Why haven't these aides been granted proper security clearances yet?

Because some of them are Rob Porter.

Rob Porter was the White House Staff Secretary until resigning on February 7th over allegations of domestic violence. Here's an op-ed written by one of his victims for the Washington Post (warning: mildly graphic images).

Soon after his resignation, it was revealed that, like Jared Kushner and dozens of other aides, Porter had been using an interim security clearance for over a year. It was also revealed that the FBI informed the White House of the allegations against Porter, and that the administration did nothing in response. All of this is summarized rather nicely in this Washington Post article.

Based on these allegations alone, Rob Porter would not pass a background check. And Jared Kushner's suspicious business dealings cast doubt on the possibility that he would, either. It's unknown how many other aides have similar stories, but it's clear that they were not properly vetted for top secret security clearance.

So what can Jared Kushner do now? Well, not much, actually. He could try to appeal to his father-in-law; the President does have ultimate control over classified information. But Trump has indicated that he will not interfere with Kelly's changes. At this point, if Kushner wants top secret clearance back, the only thing he can do is wait it out and hope that he passes his background check.