TOO SMART TO BE STUPID

Deyan Ranko Brashich

Jared Kushner, the alleged lynch-pin of the Trump Administration and its eminence grise, is an enigma. He is little known outside the confines of his self-imposed insular world made small by his adherence to the tenets of strict Orthodox Judaism. He has kept a low profile. Sphinx like his voice and words are not known. He has refused to talk to the press, even though aspiring to media control when purchasing New York’s Observer newspaper. He has made no public comment on any of the issues that have been stuffed into his vast portfolio. Jared, we hardly know you.   

          Undisputed facts supported by the public record give guidance as how to explain his actions which are now subject of investigation by House and Senate Committees and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. While not in the public record Kushner graduated from the Frisch School where he was an honor student. It is undisputed that he matriculated at and graduated from Harvard College in 2003 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in government. What is in dispute is that it took a $2.5 million-dollar contribution to assure his acceptance. Be that as it may, it is a matter of public record that he graduated from one the nation’s most prestigious institutions.

          He expanded his knowledge with a Doctor of Laws and a Master in Business Administration degrees from New York University, another far from shabby institution of higher learning. While the public records of the States of New York and New Jersey do not list him as licensed to practice law, he is in fact a lawyer by training. His disclosure forms, more on those later, confirm that he was an intern with the Manhattan District Attorney’s office and was employed by Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP, one of the nation’s premiere law firms.

          The public record supports the fact that Jared is literate and that perforce he has had to complete a number of admission and employment applications and that he is fully familiar with the process.  

          Anyone contemplating government employment is faced with having to complete seemingly endless number of forms – bureaucracy thrives on forms and paper records. The higher in government you go, the more extensive are the forms and more intrusive is the vetting process. Some fifty years ago when I last filed out a form for a United States government appointment, if memory serves, the form was some 10 pages long. Today the Standard Form 86 [SF 86] Questionnaire for National Security Positions is 127 pages long and is only one of the plethoras of forms that a high level White House appointee must complete.

Right of the bat in the instruction portion of the SF 86 form the applicant is cautioned and put on notice that concealing or omitting material facts is a crime:

           penalties for inaccurate or false statements

The U.S. Criminal Code [Title 18, Section 1001] provides that knowingly falsifying or concealing a material fact is a felony which may result in fines of up to $10,000, and/or 5 years imprisonment, or both. In addition, Federal agencies generally fire, do not grant a security clearance, or disqualify individuals who have materially and deliberately falsified these forms, and this remains a part of the permanent record for future placements. Because the position for which you are being considered is a sensitive one, your trustworthiness is a very important consideration in deciding your eligibility for a security clearance. [emphasis supplied]

 

If that were not warning enough, immediately before starting to complete the form you are further cautioned: 

persons completing this form should begin with the questions below after carefully reading the preceding instructions

I have read the instructions and I understand that if I withhold, misrepresent, or falsify information on this form, I am subject to the penalties for inaccurate or false statements [per US Criminal Code, Title 18, section 1001], denial or revocation of a security clearance, and/or removal and debarment from Federal Service.   □ yes   □   no

          In completing form SF 86 Kushner was required to report all contacts with foreign government officials within the preceding seven years. Without belaboring the point or needlessly regurgitating information that has been widely reported he did not do so. He “omitted dozens of meetings, including ones with Sergey Kislyak, the Russian ambassador to the U.S., and Sergey Gorkov, the head of Russia’s state-owned Vnesheconombank.” 

          Jared Kushner committed a separate and distinct felony in violation of Title 18, Section 1001 for each and every such omission. For context, had Jared won the $256 million jackpot in the multi-state Powerball Lottery on November 8, 2016 and in January, 2017 filed his 1040 Federal Income Tax return form failing to report his jackpot winnings as income he would have committed a felony in violation of Title 26, Section 7201 which provides that for failure to report income a felony and “shall be fined of not more than $100,000 … or imprisoned not more than 5 years, or both…”

          Jared Kushner’s education and training precludes a conclusion that his failure to disclose the many meetings with foreign officials including those with Ambassador Kislyak and banker Gorkov was inadvertent. On the contrary his education and training requires a finding that his actions were made with the intent to conceal materials facts in violation of law. Jared Kushner is too smart to be stupid, so arrest the stupid son of a bitch and be done with it! While you are at it, arrest General Michael Flynn, another over educated, stupid son of a bitch with three Master Degrees, for committing the very same felonies.

 

Deyan Ranko Brashich is a contributor writing from New York. He is the author of Letters from America, Contrary Views and Dispatches. His contact and blog “Contrary Views” is at www.deyanbrashich.com  

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