Politico broke the story, whose lede is both indisputable and very much open to question: "Presidential son-in-law and adviser Jared Kushner has had his security clearance downgraded — a move that will prevent him from viewing many of the sensitive documents to which he once had unfettered access."
So Kushner is now fettered, right? "He cannot see the [presidential daily brief], not a chance," a national-security-law expert told Politico, who added that White House officials will tell Kushner: "Here’s what … you no longer have any access to it, and any breach of that would be a serious security violation and a possible criminal issue." Said former State Department official Aaron David Miller to the NY Times: "[Kushner] doesn’t know what he doesn’t know, and now he cannot find out," because of his security downgrade.
And that's that. No ambiguity there, right? Kushner is as fettered as a fettered Kushner could be.
But, as with everything in Trumpworld, things do, in fact, get a bit murky. Politico adds that WH Chief of Staff John Kelly "took the rare step last week of issuing a public statement that Kushner would be able to continue his work in the White House unfettered" (italics mine). Kushner's lawyer then told the Times that "as General Kelly himself said, the new clearance policy will not affect Mr. Kushner’s ability to continue to do the very important work he has been assigned by the President" — virtually all of which would require access to the highest levels of secret documents. What's more, notes Politico, "the president has the ability to grant Kushner a permanent clearance," which means the fettered Kushner may not be fettered at all.
Hence the unfettered fettering of the once-unfettered Kushner is rather fettered in terms of unfettered clarity.
Why? Because this is Trumpworld, which was nepotistically corrupt and stupid enough to hire a gangly young know-nothing to achieve world peace, resolve all trade disputes, reform the criminal justice system and reinvent government. Yet the few actual professionals there are in this White House became a trifle concerned, as the Washington Post reports, that Kushner was "'naive and being tricked' in conversations with foreign officials, some of whom said they wanted to deal only with Kushner directly and not more experienced personnel." And why was that? Because the gangly young know-nothing is as sharp a businessman as he is a Metternichian diplomat. He overpaid for a Fifth Ave. property (located, appropriately, at "666"), and in 10 months must repay $1.2 billion of refinanced debt on it. Which is like extortionist catnip to certain foreign powers willing to, ahem, help.
So where does Jared Kushner stand as to security clearance? Who the hell knows — which is also the official White House position on every other matter of policy.