Probe to see if Kushner’s biz talks affected US policy
WASHINGTON: F Federal investigators are looking into whether Jared Kushner’s business talks with foreigners, as his father-inlaw Donald Trump assumed the US presidency, later influenced White House policy, NBC News has reported.
Special Counsel Robert Mueller has asked witnesses about Kushner’s attempts to secure financing for his family’s real estate ventures, focusing specifically on his talks with people from Qatar and Turkey, as well as Russia, China and the United Arab Emirates, NBC News said.
NBC cited unnamed people familiar with Mueller’s investigation, as well as witnesses who have been interviewed by Mueller’s team. A spokesman for Mueller’s office, Peter Carr, declined to comment.
A spokesman for Kushner attorney Abbe Lowell said the report was the “mischief” of unnamed sources conducting a “misinformation campaign” to mislead the news media.
“Mr Kushner’s role in the campaign and transition was to be a point person for completely appropriate contacts from foreign officials and he did not mix his or his former company’s business in those contacts,” the spokesman, Peter Mirijanian, said in a statement. “Any claim otherwise is false.”
Federal investigators have reached out to Turkish nationals for information on Kushner through the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s legal attache office in Ankara, NBC News said.
Qatari government officials who visited the US earlier this year considered turning over information to Mueller that they believed demonstrated their neighbours in the Gulf were coordinating with Kushner to hurt Qatar, NBC News said, citing four people familiar with the matter.
The Qatari officials decided against cooperating with Mueller for now out of fear it would further strain the country’s relations with the White House, the individuals told NBC News.