White House senior adviser Jared Kushner, whose White House security clearances are under new scrutiny after a whistleblower claimed President Donald Trump's administration reversed 25 security clearance denials, said Monday he's been "accused of all different types of things" that later turned out to be false.
"We've had a lot of crazy accusations, like that we colluded with Russia," Kushner, also the president's son-in-law, told Fox News' Laura Ingraham. "I complied with the investigations [in] the Senate, the House, sat for 20 hours of interviews."
He added that when he came to Washington, he had a successful business career and extensive holdings, which he disclosed to the Office of Government Ethics.
"They told me what to divest, what to keep," Kushner said.
The whistleblower, Tricia Newbold, an 18-year government employee who oversees clearances, said she compiled a list of at least 25 officials who had initially been denied security clearances that were later overturned, and that she is concerned those moves were not made "in the best interest of national security."
"She’s [Newbold] had a great team in place that is helping implement it, and I hope I’ve played a good part in pushing those objectives forward," Kushner told Ingraham.
The president last May ordered then-Chief of Staff John Kelly to grant Kushner a top security clearance despite concerns from senior administration officials, after his son-in-law's clearance had been rejected twice by White House security analysts due to concerns about the potential of foreign influence, according to The New York Times.
House Oversight chairman Elijah Cummings, D-Md., sent a letter to the White House asking for cooperation into the security clearance issue.