Kushner accused of 'trading intelligence for favors' from Saudis by national security analyst
The president's son-in-law Jared Kushner may be swapping secrets with the Saudis, according to one national security expert.
Following reports that Donald Trump ordered that Kushner be granted top-secret security clearance despite CIA concerns, former Naval cryptology officer Malcolm Nance pointed out that the president's son-in-law "was the single largest requester of intelligence in the White House that exceeded all White House staff other than the national security counsel staff."
"Why do you need all that data?" Nance mused in conversation with host Joy Reid and Trump biographer David Cay Johnston.
Though it's possible Kushner "was getting back information, reading intelligence assessments just to give himself that background," the national security expert warned that the "worst-case scenario" could be devastating for American intelligence.
Referencing Kushner's meeting with the Kremlin-linked VSB bank that was first revealed in 2017, Nance noted that the president's son-in-law may have had some "quid pro quo" during that exchange.
"He is trading intelligence for favors and the one thing that we know he did — and Prince Muhammad bin Salman in Saudi Arabia bragged publicly — that Jared Kushner brought him the names of all the tax cheats in Saudi Arabia and he carried out that massive sweep of princes and billionaires and then extorted almost a trillion dollars of money that was being withheld out of them," Nance noted. "That came from U.S. intelligence, according to the Saudis themselves."
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