Kushner, Manafort meet with congressional investigators
Two key members of President Donald Trump’s presidential campaign met Tuesday with congressional investigators probing Russia’s interference in the 2016 election and possible collusion with Trump associates.
Trump’s son-in-law and adviser Jared Kushner returned to Capitol Hill for a second day of private meetings, this time for a closeddoor conversation with lawmakers on the House Intelligence Committee.
Separately, former Trump campaign Chairman Paul Manafort met with bipartisan staff of the Senate intelligence committee and “answered their questions fully,” his spokesman, Jason Maloni, said.
Manafort’s discussion with the committee staff was confined to his recollection of a June 2016 meeting with a Russian lawyer at Trump Tower, according to two people familiar with the interview. Both demanded anonymity to discuss details because the interview occurred behind closed doors.
Manafort also turned over notes he took documenting the meeting, one said. The other person said Manafort agreed to additional interviews with the Senate intelligence committee staff on other topics. Those meetings have yet to be scheduled.
Both Manafort and Kushner have faced scrutiny about attending the Trump Tower meeting because it was described in emails to Donald Trump Jr. as part of a Russian government effort to aid Trump’s presidential campaign.
Kushner spent about three hours Tuesday behind closed doors with the House committee.
“I found him to be straightforward, forthcoming, wanted to answer every question we had,” said Republican Rep. Mike Conaway of Texas, who is leading the panel’s Russia probe. He said Kushner was willing to follow up with the committee if it has additional questions.
The committee’s ranking Democrat, Rep. Adam Schiff of California, said the questions touched on “a range of issues the committee had been concerned about.”
“We appreciate his voluntary willingness to come and testify today,” Schiff added.
On Monday, Kushner answered questions from staff on the Senate’s intelligence panel, acknowledging four meetings with Russians during and after Trump’s victorious White House bid and insisting he had “nothing to hide.” He emerged smiling to publicly declare, “All of my actions were proper.”
In an 11-page statement, he acknowledged his Russian contacts during the campaign and immediately after the election, in which he served as a liaison between the transition and foreign governments. He described each contact as either insignificant or routine and he said the meetings, along with several others, were omitted from his security clearance form because of an aide’s error. Kushner cast himself as a political novice learning in real time to juggle “thousands of meetings and interactions” in a fastpaced campaign.