Democrats’ assault on Kushner intensifies
President’s son-in-law failed to declare meeting with Russians on two security clearance forms
LAST week, Jared Kushner and wife Ivanka Trump were hobnobbing with technology titans and billionaires at an annual conference for the global elite in Sun Valley, Idaho.
For America’s foremost power couple, it was a welcome respite from Washington, where a full-scale Democratic assault has reached a crescendo.
Mr Kushner, in particular, has become the focus of a attempts to claim a White House scalp. He is the only serving member of the Trump administra- tion who was at a meeting between Donald Trump Jr, the president’s son, Natalia Veselnitskaya, a Russian lawyer, and Rimat Akhmetshin, a former Soviet intelligence officer, at Trump Tower in New York on June 9 2016.
An email chain revealed the meeting was brokered by Rob Goldstone, a British publicist, who said his client had damaging information on Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton as part of a Russian government effort to help Mr Trump’s campaign. Mr Trump Jr was eager to hear the information. Mr Kushner and the then campaign chairman Paul Manafort also attended.
Last night it also emerged that Donald Trump’s presidential election campaign made a $50,000 payment in June to the law office representing Donald Trump Jr, more than a week before revelations that the president’s son had met with the Russian lawyer. The pay- ment to the offices of Alan S Futerfas, dated June 27, was disclosed in a filing with the Federal Election Commission yesterday. It was described as covering “legal consulting” fees.
Spokesmen for Mr Trump’s re-election campaign and Mr Futerfas could not be reached for comment last night.
However, while critics have focused on Mr Trump Jr, who does not hold a position at the White House, it is Mr Kushner who could pay a higher price.
Crucially, he twice failed to disclose the meeting with the Russian lawyer on application forms for security clearance. Concealing or falsifying information on the forms, known as SF-86s, is a criminal offence.
While Mr Kushner’s lawyers have indicated it was an innocent omission, Democrats scent blood. One senior Democrat said: “He watched his fatherin-law say no one in the campaign talked to the Russian government. He knew that was false.” Elijah Cimmunigs, the leading Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, wrote to Mr Kushner demanding to see his SF-86.
Democrats also tried to secure an amendment in Congress preventing security clearance for White House employees under investigation, which was aimed at Mr Kushner, who is a “person of interest” in a Department of Justice investigation into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.
Mr Kushner first filed his SF-86 on January 18 but the section for foreign contacts was left blank. In May, an updated form was filed but the meeting with Ms Veselnitskaya and Mr Akhmetshin was not listed. On June 21, another form, including the key meeting, was sent. Lawyers indicated that it was not disclosed previously because someone prematurely pressed send on the form.