Jared Kushner’s security clearance restored

Jared Kushner, Donald Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser, has been granted a permanent White House security clearance, after being stripped of his interim status in February.

The decision ends “a period of uncertainty that had fuelled questions about whether Mr. Kushner was in peril in the special counsel investigation”, says The New York Times.

The reinstatement reportedly follows another meeting between Kushner and investigators working on special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. Kushner met investigators in April, spending seven hours answering questions, his lawyer has confirmed.

The White House said the delay in Kushner’s permanent clearance was due to administrative backlogs that are common in new administrations.

However, says CNN, it was compounded by Kushner’s failure to list “dozens of foreign contacts” in his initial, and several subsequent, requests for clearance.