Russia probe pierces Trump’s inner circle

> White House girds for defence of Kushner’s ‘secret line’ proposal

WASHINGTON: Donald Trump, just back from his first international trip as US president, geared up to combat concerns yesterday over aides’ ties to Russia including explosive reports that his son-inlaw sought a secret communications line with Moscow.

The latest furor was stirred up after The Washington Post reported late on Friday that Jared Kushner ( pix) – arguably Trump’s closest White House aide, and husband to the president’s eldest daughter Ivanka – made a pre-inauguration proposal to the Russian ambassador to set up a secret, bug-proof link with the Kremlin.

Kushner, 36, even suggested using Russian diplomatic facilities in the US to protect such a channel from monitoring, The Post said, quoting US officials briefed on intelligence reports.

The report, if confirmed, would raise new questions about the Trump team’s relationship with the Russians, who US intelligence agencies say tried to sway the November election in Trump’s favour.

News reports said the White House, reeling from the explosive developments in the longrunning Russia saga, is creating a new rapid-fire communications unit to respond to the controversy, led by Kushner, senior presidential adviser Steve Bannon and White House chief of staff Reince Priebus.

National security adviser H. R. McMaster refused to talk about the allegations but he said that in general “we have backchannel communication with a number of countries”.

“What that allows you to do is communicate in a discrete manner,” he said.

“I would not be concerned about it.”

But a former head of the US National Security Agency harshly condemned Kushner’s alleged effort to set up a secret communications line, saying if it is true, it would reveal a dangerous degree of ignorance or naivete.

“What manner of ignorance, chaos, hubris, suspicion, contempt would you have to have to think that doing this with the Russian ambassador was a good or appropriate idea?” Michael Hayden said on CNN.

He said he leaned toward “naivete” as an explanation, though he did not find it comforting.

Malcolm Nance, a retired naval officer and expert on terrorism and intelligence, said: “This is now sinister. There is no way this can be explained, from the intelligence perspective.”

“That is indicative of espionage activity of an American citizen that is working in league with a hostile government,” he told MSNBC. – AFP