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Al Franken: 'We should look at' revoking Kushner's security clearance after latest Russia bombshells

Al Franken speaks to CNN (screen grab)
Travis Gettys
May 30, 2017

Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) suggested that Jared Kushner's security clearance should be examined after reports that the White House aide tried to set up a secret line of communication with Moscow.

The Minnesota Democrat appeared Tuesday on "CBS This Morning," where he told host Charlie Rose that Kushner's alleged actions suggested the Trump team was trying to conceal wrongdoing.

"This is a pretty bad breach," Franken said. "Look, they -- these guys, the administration, they're not acting like people who have nothing to hide."

Rose asked whether Kushner, the president's son-in-law, should have his security clearance revoked.

"I think we should look at that," Franken said.

Franken said he believes Kushner may have broken the law by failing to disclose his contacts with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak and the spy-turned-chairman of Russian state development bank VEB Sergei Gorkov.

"He didn’t disclose a lot of his contacts with the Russians," Franken said. "I think it is (against the law), you're supposed to in getting security clearance, you're supposed to list those. And then there's this peculiar one where he's trying to set up a thing within the Russian communications system so that our own intelligence couldn't be part of it, which is very unusual."

The lawmaker expressed confidence that the Trump campaign's alleged ties to Russia would be properly investigated.

"We have a special prosecutor, we have the intelligence committees in both the House and the Senate that are looking at this," Franken said. "We have to see where the facts lead us."


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