An ethics chief under former President Barack Obama on Thursday compared the college admissions scandal to President Donald Trump reportedly pressuring White House officials to grant top-secret security clearances to his daughter Ivanka Trump and son-in-law, Jared Kushner.
"Quite the parallel between members of the decadent golf set cheating to get their kids into college and a decadent golf setter cheating to get his daughter and son-in-law clearances after committing nepotism to get them civil service jobs," tweeted Walter Shaub, former director of the Office of Government Ethics. "Except for the national security risks."
The Washington Post reported last month that the president had pressured then-chief of staff John Kelly to grant top-secret security clearances to Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner, both senior White House advisers, against the advice of career intelligence officials,
Shaub linked that controversy to the biggest college admissions bribery case ever prosecuted by the Department of Justice. On Tuesday, 50 people were charged in the case, including top financiers, CEOs, college sports coaches and Hollywood celebrities. The scandal resurfaced scrutiny over Kushner's acceptance into Harvard University, given reports that he was admitted shortly after his father pledged $2.5 million to the Ivy League school.
A spokeswoman for the Kushner family real estate business, Kushner Companies, in 2016 denied the donation was linked to Kushner's acceptance, saying he was "an excellent student" and his parents "are enormously generous and have donated over $100 million to universities, hospitals and other charitable causes."
The watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), where Shaub is a senior adviser, on Thursday rebuked "nepotism" within the Trump administration.
"Nepotism displayed in the privileges given to President Donald Trump's daughter Ivanka Trump and his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, constitutes a national security issue," CREW tweeted, and linked to a Newsweek story that quotes its executive director, Noah Bookbinder.
Bookbinder, a former federal corruption prosecutor, criticized Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner in light of a New York Times story on the forthcoming book Kushner Inc., which reported that the president had ordered Kelly "to get rid of" them because they were drawing bad press.
"White House advisers Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner show why nepotism laws exist: This is not only an ethics [issue] but a national security issue," Bookbinder tweeted on Tuesday. "They have received special treatment, including security clearance, and apparently can't be fired."
When a reporter asked the president in the Oval Office on Thursday if he had intervened in his daughter and son-in-law's security clearances, he said, "Thank you very much," and ended the news conference.
Shaub frequently tweets about the ethics of the president, his family and administration.
Uncommon Knowledge
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
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A Los Angeles native, Jessica Kwong grew up speaking Spanish, Cantonese and English, in that order. Her journalism career started ... Read more
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