We did not collude with Russia, saysTrump aide

SENIOR White House adviser Jared Kushner has denied that US president Donald Trump’s election campaign colluded with Russia.

In a statement released ahead of congressional interviews, the president’s son-in-law declared that he has “nothing to hide”.

His 11-page statement details four contacts with Russians during Mr Trump’s campaign and presidential transition period.

Mr Kushner, who is married to Mr Trump’s daughter Ivanka, plans to deliver the statement during closeddoor meetings with investigators on US Senate and House committees this week.

“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 which he also insists none of the contacts was improper.

He also denies that Russians finance any of his business interests in the private sector.

In speaking to Congress, Mr Kushner - as both the president’s son-inlaw and a trusted senior adviser during the campaign and inside the White House - becomes the first member of the president’s inner circle to face questions from government officials as they probe Russian meddling in the 2016 election and possible links to the Trump campaign.

He is due to meet staff on the US Senate intelligence committee and politicians on the House intelligence committee.

His appearance has been highly anticipated, in part because of a series of headlines in recent months about his interactions with Russians and because, until Monday, he had not personally responded to questions about an incomplete security clearance form and his conversations with foreigners.

Mr Kushner said in the statement: “I am not a person who has sought the spotlight.”

In it, he detailed a June 2016 meeting with a Russian-American lawyer and said 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 his father’s presidential rival, Hillary Clinton.

Mr Kushner said he had not seen those emails until he was shown them recently by his lawyers.

He said in his statement that Mr Trump Jr invited him to the meeting. He said he arrived late and left early.

Mr Kushner’s statement said: “No part of the meeting I attended included anything about the campaign.”