By Steve Neavling
ticklethewire.com
Although President’s Trump’s son-in-law appears to be the target of the ongoing Russia investigation, he continues to have access to the nation’s most top-secret information.
“The bottom line is that if Kushner were not a family member, he would be dismissed to preserve the political legitimacy of the White House decision-making process and to separate his legal situation from that of the president,” William Yeomans, a former deputy assistant attorney general who spent 26 years at the Justice Department, told Vice News.
But even though Kushner, 36, has been reported to be a “person of interest,” there are no legal grounds to remove his access to classified information.
“Someone who has been labeled a person of interest is not limited in what they can and can’t do, and it is business as usual,” said Denise Minor, a former FBI agent who specialized in white-collar crime and counterintelligence during her 28 years at the bureau.
But Kushner’s move are more likely to be scrutinized.
“If someone who knows they are under investigation destroyed notes and material that they should realize may be sought for an investigation, that person could worsen their own position by giving rise to inferences against themselves, or in an extreme case, could raise the possibility of obstruction of justice,” said Paul Rothstein, a professor at Georgetown Law School.
