Jared Kushner to be grilled by Senate on talks with Russians
Trump’s son-in-law will face House Intelligence Committee over his meetings with ambassador and head of sanctioned Moscow-owned bank
US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, is reportedly to be questioned by the Senate Intelligence Committee as part of its investigation into ties between Trump, his associates, and Russian officials.
Citing government officials, The New York Times reported Monday that the committee wants to quiz Kushner about meetings he set up with Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak at Trump Tower in New York. The White House Counsel’s Office was told of the committee’s intention to interview Kushner earlier this month, the report said.
Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Senator Richard M. Burr, a Republican from North Carolina, and the committee’s vice chairman, Senator Mark Warner, a Virginia Democrat, said that Kushner is willing to face the panel.
“Mr. Kushner has volunteered to be interviewed as part of the committee’s investigation into the Russian activities surrounding the 2016 election,” they said in a statement.
The 36-year-old Kushner is a senior adviser to Trump, reportedly with far-reaching influence over domestic and foreign policy.
All the government officials spoke to the Times on the condition of anonymity.
According to the report, Kushner met with Kislyak in December during the transition period, and the ambassador then arranged a meeting with Sergey N. Gorkov, the head of Russia’s state-owned development bank, the Vnesheconombank. The Obama administration in 2014 placed the bank under sanctions due to Russia’s involvement in the Ukraine unrest.
A White House spokeswoman, Hope Hicks, played down the significance of the meetings, saying that during the transition period Kushner met with dozens of officials from a wide range of countries.
Hicks told the paper that Kushner is ready to talk with Senate investigators and “isn’t trying to hide anything.”
A government official said investigators will ask Kushner if, during his meeting with Gorkov, he discussed financing of a cash-troubled Manhattan office tower operated by his family’s business, the Kushner Companies. Hicks said that the half-hour meeting did not address that subject or the sanctions against the bank. She added that “it really wasn’t much of a conversation.”
On Sunday The Washington Post reported that Trump had tapped Kushner to lead a new White House office that aims to apply ideas from the business world to help streamline the government.
The White House Office of Innovation will have sweeping authority to overhaul the bureaucracy and fulfill key campaign promises like reforming care for veterans and fighting opioid addiction, the Post said.
Earlier this month FBI Director James Comey confirmed for the first time that the agency was investigating Russian interference in last year’s US presidential election and notably Moscow’s possible collusion with Trump’s campaign.
The FBI “is investigating the Russian government’s efforts to interfere in the 2016 presidential election,” Comey told a hearing of the House Intelligence Committee.
“And that includes investigating the nature of any links between individuals associated with the Trump campaign and the Russian government and whether there was any coordination between the campaign and Russia’s efforts,” he said.
Comey’s disclosure confirmed longstanding reports that the FBI was probing the explosive charges that Trump’s stunning election victory over Hillary Clinton last November came on the back of Russian meddling.
US intelligence chiefs said in January they were convinced that Russian President Vladimir Putin was behind that effort. But they had not commented on whether they were examining links between members of Trump’s campaign and Russian officials.
Trump meanwhile tweeted that the Russian suspicions had been invented by the Democrats to distract attention from their electoral loss.
AFP contributed to this report.
