emptywheel

.@MarkSZaidEsq was (quite reasonably) relying on what he was told by the reporters, not independently attesting to the premise that career people agree with this decision. But put aside Mueller/Russia--Kushner/Qatar, MBS, etc seem problematic for clearance.

Sure. It seems odd he got clearance. Maybe there was political pressure, as happens all the time these days. I'd also put great stock in Abbe Lowell getting chatty. HE seems less worried and he knows what he's doing.

And I also really want to stress that if we're going to demand people respect rule of law, that includes hearing from Mueller (if we do) that assholes like Kushner aren't criminally liable for election related stuff.

Sure! But we're right now relying *exclusively* on a single White House source that career people are okay with this outcome. And this White House often lies, especially to the NYT.

"Plus, he's not interviewing the true targets, AFAWK." While that seems right re Stone, it seems potentially relevant that Giuliani said Kushner was "expendable," as that might explain treating Jared differently from Don Jr./Ivanka/DJT himself .

Yes, Rudy may think he's got exposure.

But he says Trump could just have done it without anyone else’s approval.

That is true, the President could do that. Obviously that is being denied and I would think if it did happen, it would leak eventually. But for now there is no public evidence he did anything.

Would it be breaking any laws if someone leaked how Kushner got clearance.

I don’t think it can be ignored that Kushner getting clearance probably enables his business deals to proceed. And a single anonymous source from an administration willing to lie may have ulterior motives.

This is how he got clearance:https://twitter.com/repdonbeyer/status/999401804864655360?s=21 …

Respectfully the Congressman has some of his facts wrong. Not surprising bc WH and other agencies have not been very forthcoming on information. That said, I responded in his Twitter thread with some clarifications.

You’re a great source of info. Are you being paid by a client to disperse this info now? I don’t mean any offense but just trying to verify what you’re saying has been trickier than usual.

My view for sure. It is not dispositive as facts can always change & conceivably Special Counsel could have something so sensitive it is not sharing w/other agencies, but realistically & reasonably, esp in light of recent interviews, clearance determination removes cross-hairs.