James Clapper, the former director of national intelligence, sounded the alarm after a report that President Donald Trump ordered a top-secret security clearance for son-in-law Jared Kushner, calling it “dangerous” to overrule intelligence concerns. “It is, as they say in the security business, a practice dangerous to security to do that,” Clapper, now a CNN national security analyst, told the network’s Wolf Blitzer on Thursday. “When there is the potential for leverage to be exerted by a foreign power or a foreign adversary, that is a dangerous practice, and it sets a very bad example.”Clapper’s remarks followed a New York Times report, citing four unnamed sources, that Trump himself dismissed intelligence concerns about Kushner and ordered the top-secret clearance. Clapper denounced the apparent show of nepotism as “a risky practice” that sets “a terrible example for the rest of the security community.”

Source: Huffington Post March 01, 2019 12:22 UTC