Kushner ‘has no recollection’ of Russian contacts
US top presidential adviser Jared Kushner “has no recollection” of undisclosed contacts with a Russian ambassador during the 2016 presidential campaign and transition, his lawyer says.
Speaking to Politico, the legal team of President Donald Trump’s son-in-law was pushing back against a Reuters report regarding his contacts with Russian ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak.
"Mr. Kushner participated in thousands of calls in this time period. He has no recollection of the calls as described,” Jamie Gorelick said.
According to Reuters, Ivanka Trump’s Jewish husband held at least two phone calls with Kislyak between April and November 2016.
The Washington Post also reported separately that Kushner tried to establish secret and secure communications with the Kremlin during Trump’s transition.
Kushner’s lawyer refused to comment on that report.
According to The New York Times, the channel was meant to allow then-national security adviser Michael Flynn to communicate with Moscow directly about Syria and other security issues.
The Democratic National Committee (DNC) called on Trump to "immediately fire" Kushner.
"Trump has no choice but to immediately fire Kushner, whose failure to report this episode on his security clearance is reason enough for a criminal investigation," the DNC said in a statement.
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It further questioned whether the president himself had authorized establishment of the secret channel as no other figure “stands between” the two.
"The next question is whether the president authorized this, because no one stands between Trump and Kushner in the chain of command."
Meanwhile, National Security Adviser General H.R. McMaster said he "would not be concerned" over the reports.
“We have backchannel communications with a number of countries,” McMaster said. “What that allows you to do is communicate in a discreet manner so I’m not concerned.”
Chief economic adviser Gary Cohn, a close Kushner ally, declined to answer questions about Kushner, saying “We’re not going to comment on Jared.”
An FBI investigation into Trump’s possible collusion with Moscow as well as Russia’s alleged meddling in the US 2016 presidential election recently pointed to a current White House official as a “person of interest” in the probe.
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