Kushner’s ties worry panel’s top Democrat

But Trump official defends idea of Russia back channel

WASHINGTON — The top Democrat on the House committee investigating Russian efforts to sway the 2016 presidential election raised concerns Sunday about top White House adviser Jared Kushner, saying he expects the panel will want to hear from him.

The Associated Press and other news organizations reported last week that Kushner, President Donald Trump’s son-inlaw, in December proposed back-channel communications between the Kremlin and the Trump transition team. Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly on Sunday defended the idea of establishing that kind of communication with Russia as a “smart thing” and said he didn’t see “any big issue here” for Kushner.

But Rep. Adam Schiff of California, the co-chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, said it’s “obviously very concerning” that a key Trump campaign figure might have sought secret communications with Russia. Schiff also expressed his belief that Kushner’s security clearance may need to be revoked.

Kushner spoke with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak in December about facilitating sensitive discussions to explore the incoming administration’s options with Russia as it developed its Syria policy. The intent was to connect Trump’s chief national security adviser at the time, Michael Flynn, with Russian military leaders, a person familiar with the discussions told the AP. The person, who wasn’t authorized to publicly discuss private policy deliberations, insisted on anonymity.

Russia, a pivotal player in Syria, has backed Syrian President Bashar Assad, often at the expense of civilians and at odds with U.S. policy during Syria’s long civil war.

The White House did not acknowledge the meeting or Kushner’s attendance until March. At that time, a White House official dismissed it as a brief courtesy meeting.

According to the person familiar with the Kushner meeting, the Trump team decided instead to communicate with Moscow through official channels after Rex Tillerson was confirmed as secretary of state. Tillerson, who served as director of Exxon Mobil Corp.’s Russian subsidiary before becoming the company’s chief executive officer, was sworn in on Feb. 1.

Kushner advised Trump during last year’s presiden-

tial race, overseeing the campaign’s digital strategy. He remains an influential confidant within the White House, as does his wife, Ivanka Trump.

In a statement to The New York Times on Sunday night, Trump said: “Jared is doing a great job for the country. I have total confidence in him. He is respected by virtually everyone and is working on programs that will save our country billions of dollars. In addition to that, and perhaps more importantly, he is a very good person.”

Two of Kushner’s associates said Sunday that he was eager to defend his reputation before Congress.

SECURITY CLEARANCE

Schiff said he expects the House Intelligence Committee will want to hear from Kushner because of the need to “get to the bottom” of the matter.

“There’s another question about his security clearance and whether he was forthcoming about his contacts on that,” Schiff said on ABC’s This Week. “If these allegations are true and he had discussions with the Russians about establishing a back channel and didn’t reveal that, that would be a real problem in terms of whether he should maintain that kind of security clearance.”

Schiff said that if the reports about proposed communications with Russia were true and Kushner did not reveal it, “then there’s no way he can maintain that kind of a clearance.”

Speaking on Fox News Sunday, Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., declined to comment on whether Kushner should lose his security clearance. He said the issue should be handled by the special counsel, Robert Mueller, who was appointed to oversee the federal investigation on Russian interference in the 2016 election.

“This is a rumor at this point, and whether it is something that should be followed up on, I’ll trust Bob Mueller’s judgment,” Durbin said.

Kelly said he didn’t know what level of security clearance Kushner had. When NBC’s Chuck Todd asked whether he should know, Kelly replied, “Not necessarily.”

“Everything we do in the security world, classification world, of course, before I would start talking to anyone, I would make sure that they had the requisite security clearances,” Kelly said. “I mean, I’m cleared for [top-secret sensitive compartmented information], that kind of thing.”

James Clapper, who until January was the director of national intelligence, said on NBC’s Meet the Press that although he had not seen “any smoking-gun-certitude evidence of collusion” between the Trump campaign and the Russians by the time of his departure, his “dashboard warning light was clearly on.”

“And I think that was the case with all of us in the intelligence community, very concerned about the nature of these approaches to the Russians,” Clapper said.

He said that if the reports on Kushner are true, then part of the concern is that the meeting took place in December during President Barack Obama’s administration.

“We have a time-honored custom that we have one president and one administration at a time,” Clapper said. “And oncoming administrations don’t get a head-start before the end of the current president’s incumbency.”

Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., a member of the Foreign Relations Committee, described the latest reports involving Kushner as “serious” and called for a thorough investigation.

“He needs to answer for what was happening at the time,” Booker said on CNN’s State of the Union. “What’s worrying me are the patterns we’re seeing. So, one is this administration not talking about our values, cozying up to authoritarian leaders. And the other pattern we have is just a continuous drumbeat of inappropriate contacts with the Russians.”

If the report is true, Schiff said, people might wonder why Kushner would try to keep his communications with the Russians secret.

“You have to ask, well, who are they hiding the conversations from?” Schiff added.

Kelly disputed the notion that any back-channel communications would necessarily be hidden, saying on Meet the Press that “just because you have a back channel, if indeed that’s what Jared was after, doesn’t mean that he then keeps everything secret.”

Kelly said he didn’t know whether the reports about the December meeting were true, but he defended Kushner’s conduct and his character generally.

“He’s a great guy, decent guy. His No. 1 interest, really, is the nation,” Kelly said. “So, you know, there’s a lot of different ways to communicate — back channel, publicly with other countries. I don’t see any big issue here relative to Jared.”

On Fox News Sunday, Kelly described back-channel communications as a “good thing.”

“I don’t see the big deal,” he added. “I think any time you have channels of communication with a country, particularly one like Russia, I wouldn’t criticize it.”

He was echoing the sentiment of national security adviser H.R. McMaster, who declined over the weekend to address the contents of Kushner’s December meeting with the Russian diplomat and suggested that back-channel communications were commonplace and not concerning.

“Any information flow into the government and then considered by the government, I won’t criticize that,” Kelly said on This Week. “All of these lines of communication are a positive thing, in my opinion.”

LEAKS CONDEMNED

Kelly added that leaks were a concern for the White House, calling U.S. officials’ disclosure of information about last week’s bombing in Manchester, England, “darn close to treason.”

Details of the Manchester investigation — including forensic crime-scene photos — appeared in U.S. media, infuriating British officials. Prime Minister Theresa May brought up the leaks with Trump at a NATO summit Thursday.

Just back from visiting the Middle East and Europe, Trump on Sunday dismissed the content of White House leaks as “fake news.”

“It is my opinion that many of the leaks coming out of the White House are fabricated lies,” Trump tweeted. He added: “Whenever you see the words ‘sources say’ in the fake news media, and they don’t mention names … it is very possible that those sources don’t exist.”

However, Trump conceded the accuracy of the leaks about the Manchester bombing in a separate tweet.

“British Prime Minister May was very angry that the info the U.K. gave to U.S. about Manchester was leaked,” he wrote. “Gave me full details!”

The administration often uses anonymous sources when briefing the media. When Trump authorizes top White House officials to talk to reporters, they frequently ask to provide briefings “on background,” meaning the information can be reported but their names will not be disclosed.

Those background briefings on Sunday included a discussion of Trump considering an overhaul of White House staff in order to include more campaign strategists. Trump, according to one person familiar with his thinking, believes he is facing more of a communications problem than a legal one.

Trump addressed his communications concerns in a Sunday tweet, writing, “The Fake News Media works hard at disparaging & demeaning my use of social media because they don’t want America to hear the real story!”

White House officials also said Trump’s longtime lawyer, Marc Kasowitz, has joined a legal team to help the president shoulder the intensifying investigations into Russian interference in the presidential election. More attorneys with experience in Washington investigations are expected to be added, along with crisis communication experts, to help the White House in the weeks ahead.

“They need to quarantine this stuff and put the investigations in a separate communications operation,” said Jack Quinn, who served as White House counsel for President Bill Clinton. article was

Information contributedSalama, Catherine Jill Lucey, Colvin,by for Hopethis Eileen Ken Yen, Thomas, Sullivan,Vivian Julie Superville Bykowicz, and Chad Eric Day, Tucker Darlene of The Associated Press; by Glenn Thrush, Maggie Haberman, Sharon LaFraniere, Charles V. Bagli, Matt Flegenheimer, Jason Horowitz and Peter Baker of The New York Times; by Mark Niquette, Terrence Dopp and Ben Brody of Bloomberg News; and by Abby Phillip and Paul Kane of The Washington Post.