Link hits home for Trump
A RUSSIAN bank under US economic sanctions for Russia’s incursion into Ukraine has disclosed its executives met with President Donald Trump’s son-in-law a month after the 2016 election campaign.
Jared Kushner, a top White House adviser and married to Trump’s daughter Ivanka, has agreed to testify to a Senate committee investigating whether Russia tried to interfere in the election.
Executives of Russian state development bank Vnesheconombank had talks with Mr Kushner during a bank roadshow in December 2016 while preparing a new strategy.
“As part of the preparation of the new strategy, executives of Vnesheconombank met with representatives of leading financial institutes in Europe, Asia and America multiple times during 2016,” the bank said in an emailed statement.
It said roadshow meetings took place “with a number of representatives of the largest banks and business establishments of the United States, including Jared Kushner, the head of Kushner Companies”.
Allegations by US intelli- gence agencies that Russian actors were behind hacking senior Democratic Party operatives and spreading disinformation linger over Trump’s young presidency.
Meanwhile, President Trump will roll back a slew of environmental protections enacted by Barack Obama, in a bid to untether the fossil fuel industry.
In a maiden trip to the Envi- ronmental Protection Agency, Mr Trump will sign an “energy independence executive order”, a White House official said.
The new President will unveil a series of measures to review regulations curbing oil, gas and coal production and limiting carbon emissions.
The centrepiece of Trump’s plan is an effort to slow walk Obama’s clean power plan, which restricts emissions from coal-fired power plants.
The measures will “help keep energy and electricity affordable, reliable, and clean in order to boost economic growth and job creation” the White House said.
Trump has repeatedly questioned humans’ role in global warming, leaving EPA staff to wonder whether the fox is guarding the hen house.