Trump’s son-in-law: I did not collude
‘I had no improper contacts’
DONALD Trump’s son-in-law yesterday claimed he had no idea a meeting he attended with a Kremlin-linked lawyer had been arranged in the hope of getting dirt on Hillary Clinton.
Jared Kushner insisted he had been too busy during the election campaign to read an email exchange Donald Trump Jr had sent him that made clear the Russian government wanted to pass on incriminating evidence against Mrs Clinton to help secure a Trump victory.
Mr Kushner, a senior presidential advisor and husband of Ivanka Trump, said he had arrived late at the notorious meeting in Trump Tower last June to find they were discussing a ban on Americans adopting Russian children.
Realising the meeting was a ‘waste of time’, he emailed his assistant to ring him in the meeting, to give him an excuse to leave, he said. Giving evidence to a Senate inquiry into Kremlin interference in last year’s election yesterday, Mr Kushner admitted he had contact with the Russians four times during the election campaign and the transition period before Mr Trump took office.
This included meetings with Russia’s US ambassador Sergey Kislyak and Russian banker Sergey Gorkov – a close friend of Putin. However, he flatly denied discussing anything improper with Russian officials and insisted he wasn’t guilty of any collusion. Mr Kushner, 36, whose family has a multi-billionaire dollar property empire, released an 11-page statement before his closed door meeting with the Senate intelligence committee.
In it, he failed to say what he had been expecting to discuss with his brother-in-law Mr Trump Jr at the meeting with Kremlin-connected lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya on June 9 last year. Legal experts say both men, together with ex-Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, may have committed criminal and civil offences by agreeing to meet Miss Veselnitskaya.
US intelligence is convinced Russia meddled in last year’s election, hacking Democrat emails to help the Trump campaign.
Mr Kushner, whose Russia contacts have become a focus after it emerged he did not disclose a meeting with Mr Kislyak, attempted to quash the various question marks over his behaviour. He said he had simply been performing his role as the main contact for foreign governments wanting to establish connections with the Trump administration. He will be questioned behind closed doors by the House intelligence committee today.
Mr Trump Jr and Mr Manafort are likely to be questioned in an open session later this week. In his statement Mr Kushner flatly denied any collusion, saying: ‘I had no improper contacts. I did not collude, nor know of anyone else in the campaign who colluded, with any foreign government.’