Donald Trump\u2019s son-in-law and top White House advisor Jared Kushner denied colluding with Moscow to sway the 2016 election Monday, insisting a string of undisclosed meetings with Russian officials were \u201cproper.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cLet me be very clear\u2014I did not collude with Russia, nor do I know of anyone else in the campaign who did so,\u201d Kushner said after he testified before a congressional inquiry.<\/p>\n
The normally camera-shy presidential aide said contacts with then Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak, a Russian financier and a Russian lawyer\u2014who offered dirt on his father-in-law\u2019s campaign rival Hillary Clinton\u2014were all above board.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe record and documents I have voluntarily provided will show that all of my actions were proper and occurred in the normal course of events of a very unique campaign.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kushner spent more than two hours Monday appearing before Senate investigators probing Russian meddling in the 2016 election.<\/p>\n
Both houses of Congress and the Justice Department are investigating whether Trump campaign officials colluded in that effort\u2014which the CIA says was approved by President Vladimir Putin.<\/p>\n
The sprawling probe has plagued and infuriated the White House since Trump took office, with many influential members of his team having failed to report their contacts with Russian officials.<\/p>\n
Speaking on his return to the White House\u2014where he is a senior advisor to the president\u2014Kushner said he has not \u201crelied\u201d on Russian funds for his business.<\/p>\n
He also went on the offensive, echoing Trump\u2019s claim that the investigations are an effort by Democrats to explain away a shock election loss.<\/p>\n
\u201cDonald Trump had a better message and ran a smarter campaign, and that is why he won,\u201d said Kushner, a former campaign aide.<\/p>\n
The statement was the first time the reticent Kushner\u2014who is married to Trump\u2019s eldest daughter Ivanka\u2014publicly explained his contacts with Russian officials.<\/p>\n
Kushner is scheduled to appear before a House panel on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
Special counsel and former FBI director Robert Mueller is leading a broad investigation into possible collusion. The House and Senate, however, have organized separate probes.<\/p>\n
A \u2018waste of time\u2019<\/p>\n
The 36-year-old Kushner has faced scrutiny for not disclosing meetings and for taking part in talks with Kremlin-connected Russians along with Trump\u2019s son Donald Jr.<\/p>\n
In an 11-page written statement, Kushner dismissed the June 2016 meeting with Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya\u2014which Donald Jr had taken hoping to get incriminating information on Trump\u2019s rival Hillary Clinton\u2014as a \u201cwaste of time.\u201d<\/p>\n
During the meeting, he recalled emailing an assistant: \u201cCan u pls call me on my cell? Need excuse to get out of meeting.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kushner also acknowledged a brief meeting with Kislyak in April 2016 — when Trump himself also briefly met the ambassador\u2014and another during his father-in-law\u2019s transition.<\/p>\n
That second meeting was also attended by Michael Flynn, who became Trump\u2019s national security adviser but was quickly ousted over his contacts with the Russian ambassador.<\/p>\n
\u201cI stated our desire for a fresh start in relations,\u201d Kushner said of the sit-down, saying he asked Kislyak who had direct lines to Russian President Vladimir Putin and was open for dialogue.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe fact that I was asking about ways to start a dialogue after Election Day should of course be viewed as strong evidence that I was not aware of one that existed before Election Day.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kushner emphasized that he \u201cdid not suggest an ongoing secret form of communication for then or for when the administration took office.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said Kislyak recommended meeting with banker Sergey Gorkov\u2014\u201csomeone with a direct line to the Russian President who could give insight into how Putin was viewing the new administration and best ways to work together.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fresh sanctions<\/p>\n
Kushner said there was no mention of sanctions in his talks with both Kislyak and Gorkov.<\/p>\n
The topic has made recent headlines as Congress prepares to approve fresh punitive measures against Moscow.<\/p>\n
The Senate overwhelmingly passed new sanctions in mid-June, and after reaching an agreement, the House is due to vote Tuesday on a bill targeting Russia over the suspected campaign meddling as well as its 2014 annexation of Crimea from Ukraine.<\/p>\n
Democrat Ron Wyden, a member of the committee that questioned Kushner, said his statement raised \u201cfar more questions than it answers\u201d and should not be merely accepted as \u201cthe whole truth.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cKushner has repeatedly concealed information about his personal finances and meetings with foreign officials,\u201d said Wyden.<\/p>\n
President Trump watched his son-in-law and believed he \u201cdid a good job,\u201d according to White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders.<\/p>\n
Donald Trump Jr and Paul Manafort, Trump\u2019s former campaign director, are currently negotiating with the Senate Judiciary Committee about when they will appear to give their version of events.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Donald Trump\u2019s son-in-law and top White House advisor Jared Kushner denied colluding with Moscow to sway the 2016 election Monday, insisting a string of undisclosed meetings with Russian officials were \u201cproper.\u201d \u201cLet me be very clear\u2014I did not collude with Russia, nor do I know of anyone else in the campaign who did so,\u201d Kushner<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4755,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[619],"class_list":{"0":"post-4754","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-kushner-denies-colluding-with-moscow"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bartabangla.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4754","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bartabangla.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bartabangla.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bartabangla.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bartabangla.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4754"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bartabangla.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4754\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bartabangla.com\/english\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bartabangla.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4754"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bartabangla.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4754"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bartabangla.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4754"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}