‘I have nothing to hide’ – Trump’s son-in-law on Russia claims
President’s son-in-law denies any wrongdoing
SENIOR White House adviser Jared Kushner is denying that US President Donald Trump’s campaign colluded with Russia, saying in a statement ahead of congressional interviews that he has “nothing to hide”.
The 11-page statement, provided to the press yesterday, details four contacts with Russians during Mr Trump’s campaign and transition.
Mr Kushner is delivering the statement during closed-door meetings with investigators on the Senate and House intelligence panels this week.
Mr Kushner met with staff on the Senate committee yesterday and will meet lawmakers on the House committee today as part of both panels’ investigations into Russian meddling in the 2016 campaign, and into possible links to the Trump campaign.
Mr Kushner, who is married to Mr Trump’s daughter Ivanka, says that none of the contacts was improper.
He also denies that Russians finance any of his business in the private sector. “I did not collude, nor know of anyone else in the campaign who colluded, with any foreign government,” Mr Kushner said in the statement.
In it, he also details a June 2016 meeting with a Russian-American lawyer, and says that it was such a “waste of time” that he asked his assistant to call him out of the gathering.
Emails released this month show that the president’s son, Donald Trump Jr, accepted the meeting at Trump Tower with the idea that he would receive damaging information about Hillary Clinton.
But Mr Kushner says he hadn’t seen those emails until he was recently shown them by his lawyers.
Mr Kushner said in his statement that Mr Trump Jr invited him to the meeting.
He says that he arrived late and that when he heard the lawyer discussing the issue of adoptions, he texted his assistant to call him out.
Secret
“No part of the meeting I attended included anything about the campaign, there was no follow-up to the meeting that I am aware of, I do not recall how many people were there (or their names), and I have no knowledge of any documents being offered or accepted,” Mr Kushner’s statement says.
Mr Kushner also denies reports that he discussed setting up a secret back-channel with the Russian ambassador to the US.
He said he did speak with the Russian ambassador, Sergey Kislyak, in December at Trump Tower. But he says that conversation was about policy in Syria.
Mr Kushner says that when Mr Kislyak asked if there was a secure line for him to provide information on Syria from what Mr Kislyak called his “generals”, Mr Kushner asked if there was an existing communications channel at the embassy that could be used.
Mr Kushner says that he never proposed an ongoing secret form of communication.
He also says that he met with a Russian banker, Sergey Gorkov, at the request of Mr Kislyak.
But he says that no specific policies were discussed.
Mr Trump Jr and Mr Trump’s former campaign manager Paul Manafort, who was also at the June 2016 meeting, were scheduled to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee this week.
But on Friday their attorneys said that they remained in negotiations with that panel.
The two men are now in discussions to be privately interviewed by staff or lawmakers, though the Republican chairman of the committee, Iowa senator Chuck Grassley, has said they will eventually testify in public.
The president took to Twitter over the weekend to defend himself and repeat his criticism of the investigations.
On Sunday, Mr Trump tweeted: “As the phony Russian Witch Hunt continues, two groups are laughing at this excuse for a lost election taking hold, Democrats and Russians!” (© Daily Telegraph London)