US media on Friday night announced a new, bombastic discovery of the possible link between President Donald Trump, his closest associates, and electoral staff with the Russian authorities. As written by the Washington Post and New York Times, Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner tried to establish a secret communication channel of the Trump Transition Team with Kremlin in December. He gave this idea to the Russian Ambassador to the US Sergei Kislyak at a meeting in a Trump Tower on December 1 or December 2 and suggested that Trump's people use Russian equipment in their facilities in the US territory for secure communication on political issues such as the war in Syria.
Kushner refused to comment on the matter
Kushner, currently the president's advisor, refused to comment on these reports. Trump's National Security Adviser Michael Flynn also participated in a meeting that Kushner admitted happened only after the media reported on it. Both he and Kushner are currently in the focus of the FBI's investigation into Trump's relations with the Russians.
The meeting was anonymously reported to the Washington Post. The New York Times reports that in the end a secure line has not been established. In addition to the secret communication channel, Kushner, Flynn, and Kislyak discussed a meeting of a Trump representative with a 'Russian contact' in a third country. The Washington Post recalls that during April it was reported that Eric Prince, Trump's informal advisor and founder of Private Security Company Blackwater, held a meeting in Seychelles with Vladimir Putin's representative on January 11, nine days before Trump's inauguration.
Intelligence Committee asked Trump's organization to hand over all the documentation
The US Senate Intelligence Committee, investigating Russian interference in the US 2016 election, has asked Donald Trump's political organization to hand over all the documentation from the 2015 campaign, the Washington Post reported on Friday.
A letter from the Senate Commission, which sought all documents, emails, and phone records about Russia from the campaign in June 2015, arrived last week at Trump's campaign committee. According to the Washington Post, this is the first time that Trump's campaign organization has been dragged in the investigation by the two-party commission on Russian interference in the presidential election.
It is expected that tens of former campaign members will soon be contacted to ensure that they are aware of this request. The letter was signed by Republican Senator Richard Burr, Chairman of the Board, and Democratic Senator Mark Warner. The Senate's investigation into Russian interference has been separated from a case investigated by a special attorney appointed last week by Justice Minister and former FBI director Robert Mueller. Trump's campaign committee, headquartered in Trump Tower in New York is now led by Michael Glassner, former campaign head deputy and John Pence, nephew of Vice President Mike Pence.
