Jared Kushner lied on his security clearance forms -- a federal felony with a penalty of five years

[Lee-Lee]

51. Lies on an SF-86 are a huge issue

This is what I do say in and day out, and one thing I push is that a lie is 100x worse than just telling them the truth. If an investigator finds any indications of deception that is a huge red flag.

However, it is intent to deceive that matters in that case.

In this case from what I see on The NY Times article it says the day after the SF-86 was submitted his aide notified OPM they had left information off and would be submitting additional details. The investigators will see that not as intent but an oversight, and will probably look at those meetings a little closer but it won't be an issue since it appears he self-corrected the error before being asked about it.


I have had to do that for one of our new hires at work. He was retired Navy and his clearance had expired before he was hired, but his last tour was in a joint headquarters in Afghanistan where he worked with foreign officers and often briefed or talked to civilian officials of Afghanistan and of other coalition nations. Trying to tack down the details of all those people was a nightmare for him, and twice we had to submit additional information as he found the contact information and details of people he had met with and briefed and often forgot about as soon as it was over. Eventually the investigator told us she had enough to get the picture and unless something major came up not to submit more changes unless she asked.

If the investigator looks and sees that the omissions were accidental and sees the honest attempts to correct the record and supply as complete a record as possible they will adjudicate favorably unless they find other underlying issues.