A7
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, MARCH 1, 2019
Report: Trump demanded clearance for Kushner
Associated Press
AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais
White House senior adviser Jared Kushner, right, stands behind President Donald Trump in October during a news conference
about Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh.
at the time, and new stories,
if accurate, do not change
what was affi rmed at the
time.”
White House Press
Rape: ‘She’s a little more vulnerable than we are’
Continued from Page A1
who are not well,” Paiz said
through a translator.
About seven months
after the fi rst incident, Paiz
met his second victim at
the bus station in Astoria.
He took up a dinner invi-
tation one night from the
victim, but then shortly
after moved into her home
uninvited.
He stayed there for a lit-
tle over three months and
sexually assaulted her mul-
tiple times, the woman
testifi ed.
After being assaulted
in September, the victim
decided to call her brother
to tell him what was hap-
pening. He called Warren-
ton p olice, who took the
victim to the hospital .
Though fi t to aid and
assist in the trial, the state
asked the jury to consider
the fact that the second
victim also experienced a
degree of mental impair-
ment from a previous
brain injury and requires
a caseworker to help
manage her day-to-day
living.
“She’s a little more vul-
nerable than we are,” Buz-
zard said.
Paiz again denied the
allegations, arguing he
always had permission to
have sex with her.
“I never did anything
forcefully ... that’s where
the mistake is,” Paiz said
through a translator in his
closing argument.
Paiz was also arraigned
and pleaded not guilty on
Thursday to two counts
of fi rst-degree sex abuse
and two counts of fi rst-de-
gree sodomy for allegedly
having sex with a 9-year-
old between 2013 and
2014.
Secretary Sarah Sanders
declined to comment on the
Times story.
Rep. Elijah Cummings,
chairman of the House
Committee on Oversight
and Reform, said Thursday
that the Times report “indi-
cates that President Trump
may have granted access
Solar: Grants could bring more than
1,000 kilowatts of solar power online
Continued from Page A1
program, through which customers vol-
untarily choose to get part or all of their
energy from renewable sources, while
supporting community-based renewable
energy projects.
The most recent round of Blue Sky
grants could bring more than 1,000 kilo-
watts of solar power online. The program
in 2015 provided $169,000 for the installa-
tion of a 30-kilowatt turbine by the city of
Astoria at the Bear Creek Dam, along with
$25,000 for a feasibility study preceding
the project.
“We are proud to facilitate this partner-
ship between the funding recipients and
t
Go
You are invited to
Jerry & Bonnie’s
RETIREMENT
Party!
our Blue Sky Block participants,” Berit
Kling, Pacifi c Power program manager,
said in a news release. “These solar proj-
ects raise the profi le of renewable technol-
ogies in these communities and will have
lasting benefi ts through reducing their car-
bon footprint.”
While the new Astoria Co-op is not
pursuing sustainability certifi cation, Stan-
ley said, “We’re exploring as many green
options as we can.”
The grocery is looking to incorporate
sustainable products and building mate-
rials, along with edible components to its
landscaping. While funding for the solar
array is not guaranteed, the c o-op can
always pursue it in the future, Stanley said.
ye
that Mr. Kushner’s security
clearance was handled in
the regular process with no
pressure from anyone. That
was conveyed to the media
od b
WASHINGTON
—
President Donald Trump
last year ordered offi cials
to grant top-secret secu-
rity clearance to his son-
in-law and senior adviser
Jared Kushner, according to
a report published Thursday
by The New York Times.
Kushner was granted the
high-level clearance last
May after a lengthy back-
ground check.
The Times, citing anon-
ymous sources, said Trump
demanded Kushner’s clear-
ance despite the concerns of
intelligence offi cials, then-
Chief of Staff John Kelly
and then-White House
counsel Don McGahn.
Kelly wrote in an inter-
nal memo that he had been
“ordered” to give top-secret
clearance to Kushner, the
newspaper said. McGahn
wrote a memo in which
he advised against such
clearance.
Peter Mirijanian, a
spokesman
for
Kush-
ner lawyer Abbe Lowell,
responded Thursday to the
Times story with a state-
ment, saying: “In 2018,
White House and security
clearance offi cials affi rmed
to our country’s most sen-
sitive classifi ed infor-
mation to his son-in-law
against the advice of career
staff—directly contradict-
ing the President’s public
denials that he played any
role.”
Trump told Times report-
ers in January that he “was
never involved” with Kush-
ner’s security clearance.
Cummings,
D-Md.,
noted that his committee
has launched an investiga-
tion into the security clear-
ance process and requested
documents
and
inter-
views relating to Kushner’s
clearance.
“To date, the White
House has not produced a
single document or sched-
uled a single interview,”
Cummings said in a state-
ment. “The Committee
expects full compliance
with its requests as soon as
possible, or it may become
necessary to consider alter-
native means to compel
compliance.”
Ivanka Trump, the pres-
ident’s daughter and Kush-
ner’s wife, said in Febru-
ary that the president did
not play a role in granting
security clearances to her or
Kushner.
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