After FBI officials identified jared kushner as the subject of an investigation over the Russian connection of the Trump campaign, White House officials advised the husband of Ivanka Trump to lay low for now. The probe aims to look into reports that the son-in-law of U.S. President Donald Trump asked Russia to establish a backdoor communications channel using the embassy in Washington.
A good person
However, as expected, the president expressed his confidence in Kushner. Trump said he has total confidence in his senior adviser whom he insisted is respected by virtually everyone.
The billionaire stressed that Kushner is working on a program that will save the U.S. billions of dollars.
Beyond backing his son-in-law, Trump said that Kushner is a good person. However, the Democrats doubted the son-in-law’s credibility and called on Trump to revoke Kushner’s security clearance due to his potential links to Russia, Newsweek reported. California Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff, chairman of the House committee investigating Russia’s alleged interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, wants to know if Kushner then was acting on behalf of Trump as the Republican candidate or president-elect.
New Jersey Democratic Sen. Cory Booker, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said that Kushner must explain what happened during the meeting with Russian Ambassador to Washington Sergey Kisylak.
Booker pointed out that the political patterns emerging are worrying. One pattern is the Trump administration cozying up to authoritarian leaders. The second pattern is a continuous drumbeat of inappropriate contacts with the Russians.
Back-channel communications are good
However, administration officials came to Kushner’s defense.
H.R. McMaster, the National Security Adviser, said that it is not wrong to create a back-channel with Russia. He said that Washington had back-channeled communications with several nations which allow the U.S. to communicate in a discreet way.
John Kelly, Homeland Security Secretary, also supported McMaster’s statement. He said the creation of secret lines of communications with foreign countries is acceptable.
Kelly explained that anyway, a country could communicate with people, especially organizations that are particularly not friendly to the U.S., is a good thing.
Despite the assurance by the two officials, the White House is preparing for the barrage of negative news once the investigation of Kushner’s involvement goes deeper. One preparation is the hiring of communications experts and lawyers who would man a war room that would deal with revelations to come out during the FBI probe on the son-in-law.
