Kushner is clear: There was no Russia deal
Trump adviser/son-in-law says meetings with foreign representatives not improper
“I did not collude with Russia, nor do I know of anyone else in the campaign who did so.”
Jared Kushner
After speaking with Senate Intelligence Committee staff members investigating Russia’s alleged interference in the presidential election, President Trump’s son-in-law and adviser Jared Kushner insisted Monday he did nothing wrong and wants to get on with his White House duties.
“Let me be very clear: I did not collude with Russia, nor do I know of anyone else in the campaign who did so,” Kushner said in a brief statement outside the White House.
After meeting for more than two hours with staff from one of the congressional panels investigating possible collusion between Trump associates and Russians who sought to influence the election in favor of his father-in-law, Kushner said he has been “fully transparent” and is “eager to share any information I have with the investigating bodies.”
Kushner will face investigators in another private session Tuesday, when members of the House Intelligence Committee will interview him as part of its inquiry into possible collusion between Trump associates and Russians who sought to influence the election by hacking Democrats close to candidate Hillary Clinton.
Congressional and federal investigators seek more details about a meeting in Trump Tower, in which the president’s son-inlaw, oldest son and campaign chairman met with a Russian lawyer. Donald Trump Jr. and Paul Manafort will appear behind closed doors before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday.
In an 11-page written statement issued hours before the meeting with the Senate panel, Kushner said he had four contacts with Russians during the campaign and transition, and none of them was improper.
doesn’t have confidence in you.”
Trump’s willingness to undercut one of his earliest and most faithful supporters — even at the possible expense of his law enforcement priorities — may mean he’s motivated by more than disappointment in a decision his attorney general made back in March. The president, analysts said, may be trying to squeeze Sessions as part of a broader strategy to take more direct control over the direction of the Russia inquiry.
“I think you have to ask the question of who benefits from Sessions’ removal,” said Jimmy Gurule, a former assistant attorney general under President George H.W. Bush. “And the answer is President Trump.”
Sessions’ removal, Gurule said, would allow Trump to pick an attorney general nominee with no conflicts with the Russia inquiry, which prompted Sessions’ recusal. A new attorney general could wrest control of the investigation from special counsel Robert Mueller, who leads the Justice Department’s inquiry into possible collusion between Trump associates and Russians who sought to influence the presidential election in favor of Trump by hacking Democrats. By law, Trump cannot directly fire Mueller.
“Given President Trump’s stated concerns for the direction of Mueller’s investigation (to include the Trump family finances), you have to look at Sessions’ removal as part of an end game,” Gurule said.
Trump’s high-profile attacks on Sessions came after news that Mueller is investigating a controversial meeting in June 2016 between a Kremlin-linked lawyer and Trump’s son Donald Trump Jr., son-in-law Jared Kushner and campaign chairman Paul Manafort.
Justice officials declined to comment Monday on Trump’s latest missive. It was not immediately clear whether Sessions had communicated directly with the president since Trump expressed his displeasure last week in an interview with The New York
Times.
The day after the interview was published, Sessions said he would continue to serve, as long as it was “appropriate.” The White House said Trump had confidence in his attorney general even though he disagreed with the decision to recuse himself on the Russia investigation.
The political fire has intensified since. John Dowd, Trump’s lead outside attorney handling Russia matters, said the president’s criticism of Sessions is justified. “I’m ashamed of him (Sessions),” Dowd said in an interview with USA TODAY, adding that the attorney general’s recusal decision was “nuts.”
Whatever the president’s intention, analysts said, Trump’s criticism severely damaged Sessions’ ability to lead a department whose mission is critical to carrying out Trump’s agenda — from immigration enforcement to the campaigns against violent crime and opioid addiction.
“Anybody who works for Donald Trump has a very difficult, if not an impossible, task,” said Bill Baxley, a former Alabama attorney general who knows Sessions from his time in Alabama. “I think his criticisms are unjustified, but it is not surprising that (Trump) acts like that.”
Gurule, a University of Notre Dame law professor, said Sessions’ effectiveness at carrying out Trump’s priorities is likely to be diminished if he “continues to be attacked by the president who nominated him.”
“What all of this shows is that the president does not respect the independence of the Department of Justice,” he said. “He sees that office as an extension of his political operation. You can do that in Russia, but can’t in the U.S.”