Jared Kushner has had a pleasant 13 months seeing all the top secrets despite not having the appropriate security clearance, but that cheery idyll has come to an end. Kelly done busted him down.

Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law and senior adviser, has been stripped of his high-level security clearance after months of delays in completing an exhaustive background check, limiting his ability to view highly classified information, a White House official and another person familiar with Mr. Kushner’s situation said.

Mr. Kushner’s top-secret clearance was reduced to secret and his portfolio, especially with regard to his conduct of foreign affairs on behalf of President Trump, is expected to contract sharply as well in the days ahead, the people said Tuesday. The change in his clearance was first reported by Politico.

Of course he never had any business conducting foreign affairs on behalf of Donald Trump in the first place.

Officials have not said what has held up Mr. Kushner’s background check, though extensive contacts with foreign officials are usually scrutinized closely by the F.B.I. And Mr. Kushner’s meetings with foreign leaders and multiple business ventures could be relevant to Robert S. Mueller III, the special counsel investigating Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election.

The issue of Mr. Kushner’s clearance has led to a continuing clash with Mr. Kelly. Mr. Kushner has pressed to keep his top-level access to some of the United States’ most sensitive classified material. That access has allowed him to view the presidential daily brief, the summary of intelligence that is given to the president every day.

But he shouldn’t be there at all, much less there and looking at the United States’ most sensitive classified material. The whole thing is a scandal.

Armed with that access, Mr. Kushner served as a high-level envoy to leaders around the world, including the leaders of Saudi Arabia, and is the top White House adviser charged with negotiating peace between the Israelis and the Palestinians.

Despite the fact that his profession is “property owner,” which really doesn’t prepare anyone to do the envoying to Saudi Arabia and the miraculous peace-making between the Israelis and the Palestinians.

National security veterans in Washington said the loss of high-level clearance will be a hindrance when it comes to Mr. Kushner’s foreign policy role, particularly his ability to understand what the other players are thinking, including the Saudis, Iranians and others who are influential in the region.

But he shouldn’t have any foreign policy role. If Trump had a chihuahua, the chihuahua should not have any foreign policy, and neither should son-in-law Jared Kushner.

In a briefing for reporters earlier in the day, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the White House press secretary, repeatedly refused to answer questions about the status of Mr. Kushner’s clearance or that of other aides at the White House.

“I’ve been very clear that we don’t discuss security clearances,” she said. “And that’s not changing today, it didn’t change yesterday, it’s not going to change tomorrow, probably not going to change next week.”

So they get away with murder by just refusing to discuss murder. Quite a con-game.