NEW YORK — One little noticed takeaway from a Washington Post article claiming that four foreign countries have “privately discussed ways they can manipulate Jared Kushner” is that U.S. intelligence agencies are apparently spying on Israeli officials.

Citing “current and former U.S. officials familiar with intelligence reports on the matter,” the Post reported that Israel, the United Arab Emirates, China and Mexico were each discussing ways to influence Kushner in an advantageous manner, although it is unclear whether any countries acted to do so. Kushner is President Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser.

The officials further said there has been concern that Kushner’s inexperience in government and the debt of his family’s real estate firm could be utilized by foreign nations to seek points of leverage.  There was concern over Kushner’s contact with certain foreign countries, the officials added, revealing that the issue has been a factor in holding up Kushner’s permanent security clearance.

When it came to Israel, the Post did not cite any information that indicates wrongdoing or that Israel was seeking ways to leverage Kushner based on his family’s business ties.

Israel was mentioned as “among those nations discussing ways to influence Kushner to their advantage,” but no specific details were provided.  The piece allowed that “foreign governments routinely discuss ways they can influence senior officials in all administrations.”

“Every country will seek to find their point of leverage,” one person familiar with intelligence intercepts told the newspaper.

UAE officials, however, discussed Kushner’s potential manipulability due to efforts by his family’s firm, Kushner Cos, to seek investors, the report claimed. Kushner divested his stake in the company when he entered the White House at the start of the Trump administration.

The Post did not specify the origins of the information cited in the purported intelligence reports. At one point in the article, the Post referred to “intelligence intercepts of foreign officials discussing Kushner,” which could indicate intercepted communications of Israeli officials.

It is not uncommon for allies to spy on each other, nor does the report mark the first time in recent years that U.S. intelligence agencies were said to have monitored Israeli communications. However, it seems to be the first public report of intelligence agencies under the Trump administration potentially spying on the Jewish state.

In 2015, the Wall Street Journal reported that the Obama administration conducted surveillance of Israeli officials, going so far as to sweep up conversations that Israeli leaders had with members of Congress as well as with Jewish leaders about the Iran nuclear deal.  That reported surveillance was part of an apparent bid to thwart opposition to the controversial nuclear agreement.  According to the Journal report, the National Security Agency intercepts included Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s own conversations as well as communications of other Israeli leaders.

In 2016, documents leaked to the news media and attributed to NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden claimed that the NSA and its British counterpart had monitored communications and secret missions of Israel‘s air force as part of a hacking operation that started in 1998.

On Tuesday, Politico first reported that Kushner had his top-secret security clearance downgraded to a secret clearance after months of delays related to his background-check process. The move came amid a larger crackdown initiated by White House Chief of Staff John Kelly on officials working with interim security clearances.

Reacting to the Washington Post‘s report about foreign nations allegedly discussing ways to manipulate Kushner, Peter Mirijanian, a spokesman for Kushner’s lawyer, said, “We will not respond substantively to unnamed sources peddling second-hand hearsay with rank speculation that continue to leak inaccurate information.”

Aaron Klein is Breitbart’s Jerusalem bureau chief and senior investigative reporter. He is a New York Times bestselling author and hosts the popular weekend talk radio program, “Aaron Klein Investigative Radio.” Follow him on Twitter @AaronKleinShow. Follow him on Facebook.

President Donald Trump embraced Sen. Joe Manchin’s (D-WV) gun control bill but rejected Rep. Steve Scalise’s (R-LA) push for national reciprocity during a bipartisan meeting with lawmakers Wednesday afternoon.

After listening to Sen Chris Murphy (D-CT), Trump looked at toward the end of the table and asked Sens. Pat Toomey (R-PA) and Joe Manchin (D-WV) to detail their gun control bill.

The Manchin/Toomey gun control bill is the same universal background check legislation supported by Barack Obama in the wake of the heinous attack on Sandy Hook Elementary School. It the very bill that was defeated in the Democrat-controlled Senate on April 17, 2013.

Toomey described it for Trump, saying the bill “strengthens the reporting of information into the background check system” and “requires background checks on all commercial sales.” This is code-talk for requiring background checks on private gun sales, which Toomey described as sales at gun shows and online (even though online sales already require a background check).

Manchin then spoke and suggested that West Virginians will support the Manchin/Toomey gun control bill if Trump will support it. He did not mention that the Manchin/Toomey bill would not have prevented the Florida attack — just as it would not have prevented the Sandy Hook attack that spawned it.

Trump spoke of the using the Manchin/Toomey bill “as a base” to which other gun bills can be added, and then continued taking comments from various senators and representatives in attendance.

When it was Rep. Scalise’s time to speak, he highlighted the crime-fighting value of concealed carriers and the need to pass national reciprocity legislation. National reciprocity was introduced in the House on January 3, 2017, and passed in the House on December 6, 2017. It was introduced in the Senate on March 1, 2017, and it has yet to come up for a vote nor has Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said a word in support of it.

Trump shut down Scalise’s reciprocity push, suggesting the gun control package being pieced together would never pass if national reciprocity were added to it.

Trump looked at Scalise and said, “You know I’m your biggest fan in the whole world. I think that maybe that bill will someday pass but it should pass as a separate bill… You’ll never get this passed. If you add concealed carry to this you’ll never get it passed. Let it be a separate bill.”

Trump added, “We want to get something done.”

AWR Hawkins is an award winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News, the host of the Breitbart podcast Bullets, and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for the Breitbart News.  He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com. Sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange.

I know that President Trump is crafty and says outrageous things simply to get a rise out of democrats and to shift the narrative to what he wants it to be. He however said something today that I have a hard time defending. In a nut shell, he came out in favor of seizing guns from Americans without due process. I expect that from Obama, but not Trump.

President Trump held a bipartisan meeting on gun control with members of Congress today. He was talking about Nikolas Cruz, the Florida school shooter, who had many run-ins with the law but was never deprived of his right to own guns.

President Trump tells Senators he thinks police should have taken guns away from Nikolas Cruz, whether they had the right or not, “I don’t want mentally ill people to be having guns.” pic.twitter.com/wU6L8ERlas

— Pat Ward (@WardDPatrick) February 28, 2018

“The police saw that he was a problem, they didn’t take any guns away. Now, that could’ve been policing. They should’ve taken them away anyway, whether they had the right or not,” said Trump.

Yikes! Taken his guns whether they had a right or not? That ain’t how it works as long as the Constitution still exists. The fact is the local police had many opportunities to legally relive Cruz of his firearms but chose not to. That being said, Trump shouldn’t be saying that police should be illegally confiscating weapons from people.

WATCH: President Trump: “I like taking the guns early … Take the guns first, go through due process second.” pic.twitter.com/aydEZdAGq0

— NBC News (@NBCNews) February 28, 2018

And it gets worse. Vice President Mike Pence was talking about getting legislation that would make it easier for law enforcement to take guns away from mentally ill people, but within the law and respecting due process. Pence said he didn’t want to “trample on anyone’s rights” and they should go to court first and then take the firearms.

This is how Trump responded:

“Or Mike, take the firearms first and then go to court,” said Trump.

Then he added:

“I like taking the guns early,” said Trump. “Take the gun first and go through due process second.”

I understand that Trump is speaking in the context of the Florida school shooter, but these are words anyone who gives a shit about liberty never wants to hear the President say. Gun ownership is a right which should never be taken away with out another right: due process. These are fundamental rights that we all have and when the government starts taking those things away, that’s tyranny.

The funny thing is, liberals who hate Trump and think he’s a fascist dictator, love these fascist dictorshipy things he just said. They think he should be impeached for all kinds of nonsense but will praise him for the impeachable offense of stripping Americans of their God-given natural rights.

Like I said, Trump tends to say things as a way of manipulating the left, so hopefully this is more of him exerting control over the democrats. If he actually wants to do something that will take guns away from people without due process, he’s pretty much Obama to me and I will no longer be able to support him.

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