A US Democrat Senator has called for the resignation of US President Donald Trump's son-in-law and senior White House adviser.
“I think Jared Kushner ought to resign,” Richard Blumenthal said on Thursday in the wake of news that Kushner attended a meeting with a Kremlin-linked attorney during the 2016 presidential campaign.
“Either Donald Trump is lying when he said he knew nothing about the meeting, or Jared Kushner failed to tell him about it,” he added.
On Tuesday, Trump's eldest son Donald Trump Jr. released emails showing he embraced Russia's efforts to support his father's presidential campaign.
A New York Times report suggested that accompanying Donald Jr. in the meeting with a Russian lawyer in the run-up to last year’s US presidential election were Kushner, and Trump's then-campaign chairman, Paul Manafort.
Trump Jr. said the Russian lawyer, Natalia Veselnitskaya, approached him saying she had important information about the Russian government’s ties to Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton’s campaign.
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Trump issued a brief statement defending his eldest son, saying, “My son is a high-quality person and I applaud his transparency.”
According to another report by The New York Times, Kushner, has “tried and failed” to get a $500 million loan from a key member of the Qatari royal family before pushing the president to toe hard line against the Persian Gulf nation.
Kushner also negotiated a massive weapons deal between Saudi Arabia and American weapons manufacture Lockheed Martin which was signed during Trump’s visit to the kingdom in May.
American analysts have blamed Kushner and his father-in-law for promoting America’s armament industry by fueling conflicts in the Middle East region.