Jared Kushner has been granted a permanent security clearance, The New York Times reported on Wednesday—and it's an affront to every government worker and contractor held to a far stricter standard than the president's son-in-law.

Kushner got the OK despite initially failing to mention dozens of contacts with foreign leaders or officials. Also, on his government financial disclosure form, he left out “loans totaling at least $1 billion, from more than 20 lenders, to properties and companies part-owned by Mr. Kushner,” according to The Wall Street Journal. Nor did Kushner acknowledge that he “provided personal guarantees on more than $300 million of the debt.”

How would that go over if he was a regular person?  

Well, take the recent case of an 87-year-old man, who has had a security clearance since 1992. He just lost it because of delinquent debts, even though he said seven of the debts belonged to his son, who has the same name. Other debts stemmed from medical expenses on behalf of his grandson and his brother's death.

Too bad.

An administrative judge at the Defense Office of Hearings and Appeals, which adjudicates security clearance disputes, found that many of the debts were beyond the man's control and unlikely to reoccur but yanked his clearance anyway.

Then there's the guy who filed his taxes late because of overseas deployments, paperwork mistakes by his employer and an unreliable tax preparer.

Sorry, that's no excuse either. Clearance denied.

Another recent decision involved a woman who (like Kushner) said she oops, she didn't realize she needed to disclose certain debts, which in her case amounted to $22,000.

The judge noted that she had two associate's degrees and a bachelor's degree and “it was not credible that applicant misread several questions” in the security clearance application. Denied.

Kushner—who has a B.A. from Harvard and a joint JD/ MBA from New York University—got to amend his application at least three times, according to the Washington Post.

Or there's guy who served in the military for 11 years and owes $30,000 in delinquent debts, although his financial situation had been improving. Yep, he got denied too.

“An individual who is overextended is at greater risk of having to engage in illegal or otherwise questionable acts to generate funds,” the court explained.

Hello? Jared Kushner? Whose family business owes $1.2 billion on a Manhattan property and is facing a deadline early next year to come up with the money?  Whose personal debts (along with his wife Ivanka) from three lines of credit range from $35 million to $155 million, according to Politico? Who according to the Washington Post is viewed by foreign officials “as a figure who might be manipulated due to the family company's financial needs and his lack of experience.”

He gets a clearance.

 

Lateral Watch

Kushner's lawyer in the Russia probe, Abbe Lowell, has moved from Norton Rose Fulbright to Winston & Strawn in Washington, D.C. and New York.

“Norton Rose and Chadbourne are a powerful combination,” Lowell told my colleague Ryan Lovelace on Wednesday, “[but] I was running into a number of conflicts and other issues in this 4,000-person firm.”

He also said he expects all of his clients will remain with him at his new firm.

For more, see Abbe Lowell, Counsel to Kushner, Joins Winston From Norton Rose Fulbright

 

It wasn't the only big departure from Norton Rose yesterday. A 14-lawyer group is moving to Reed Smith in Washington, D.C. and New York, and will open a new office for the firm in Austin.

According to my colleagues at Texas Lawyer, the group is led by Rick Robinson, the former global head of life sciences and health care at Norton Rose, who is joining Reed Smith in Washington, D.C. along with partner Lesley Reynolds.

Partners Jeff Layne and Ben Koplin will lead the Austin office, and Cori Goldberg joins in New York.

According to Texas Lawyer, the lateral team's work includes criminal and civil investigations, regulatory counseling and compliance, False Claims Act defense, administrative litigation, consumer class actions and internal investigations. 

The group will bring clients including Duke University, Boston Scientific and Walgreens.

For more, see Reed Smith Raids Norton Rose for Life Sciences/Health Care Team, Adds Austin Office

 

Shout-Out: Wilkinson Walsh for the Win

Wilkinson Walsh + Eskovitz partners Kosta Stojilkovic and Rakesh Kilaru scored a win for the NCAA, shutting down a $27 million defamation suit by former USC assistant football coach Todd McNair.

On Monday, a Los Angeles County Superior Court found for the athletic association, ruling that McNair was not defamed in a 2010 NCAA report about improper benefits that star running back Reggie Bush had received while at USC.

The report, which resulted in a two-year post-season ban for USC and Bush returning the 2005 Heisman trophy, found that the running back received gifts and other items of value from a marketing professional eager to sign him as a client when he turned pro. McNair allegedly knew about the benefits and failed to provide truthful information about them.

According to Sports Illustrated, during the three-week trial, the “jurors heard testimony and saw evidence showing that the NCAA relied on mistakes of fact in punishing McNair. The NCAA also authorized a disciplinary process plagued by a degree of procedural unfairness that seriously called into question the outcome.”

Nonetheless, the jurors rejected the defamation claim, concluding that the statements made in the report were not false.

 

What I'm Reading

Trump Cannot Block Twitter Users From His Account, Court Rules

The president's personal account falls under the public forum doctrine, and blocking individuals because of their political views is a free speech violation, the judge held.

This Dispute Over a Tweeting Judge Shouldn't Invite the Justices, DOJ Says

Sierra Pacific Industries Inc. is trying to undo a $122 million settlement in part based on the argument that the trial judge's Twitter activity created an appearance of bias.

Manafort Takes Supreme Court's Car-Rental Privacy Ruling for Test Drive

The former Trump campaign chairman's defense team pointed to the May 14 decision in their bid to prevent prosecutors from using evidence seized from a storage unit in Alexandria, Virginia.

Carlton Fields Faces $15M Malpractice Action Over Procaps Litigation Loss

After losing the case, Procaps got hit with an $18.5 million fee award from Cooley, and says it “would have never agreed to bring such a claim if it was fully informed of the attorney's fee risk.”

Arista's Antitrust Suit Against Cisco OK'd for Trial

Cisco general counsel Mark Chandler and his blog posts will likely be at the center of it.

Anthem Lawyers Defending Their Fees Say Objector Has Conflict of Interest

Crazy coincidence, the objector happens to be an attorney at the Competitive Enterprise Institute's Center for Class Action Fairness.

Judge Chides Tex McIver's Lack of Apology in Imposing Life Sentence for Murder

“I never heard you say you are sorry for what you did. To me that silence speaks volumes,” the judge told the disgraced attorney.

Upstate NY Judge Orders 30-Year-Old Man to Move out of Parents' House

A real-life (not funny) Failure to Launch.