Days after it was confirmed that Russians offered damaging information against Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, jared kushner has come forward and released a statement to a Senate committee investigating the matter. According to CNN, he said that he met with the Russians four times but he and the other Trump officials did not collude with them, contrary to reports that Russian hackers interfered with the U.S. presidential elections last year.
Kushner accepted the invitation of the Senate Intelligence Committee to talk about what happened in the meetings and after a closed-door hearing with the committee, the son-in-law of President Donald Trump again said he did not collude with Russia and he also knows that nobody else in the campaign team had any kind of agreement with the people from Moscow who reached out to them.
Donald Trump Jr., Paul Manafort expected to testify
Kushner’s statement and testimony marked the first time that a senior White House official was questioned by the Senate Intelligence Committee regarding Russia’s possible role in the presidential elections. Kushner will testify again before the House Intelligence Committee.
Donald Trump Jr., the president’s eldest son, will also provide documents to the Senate Judiciary Committee. This committee, aside from the Senate and House Intelligence Committee, also started their probe on the reported Russian interference. Donald Jr., and Paul Manafort, the former campaign manager of the president, are expected to testify soon.
Kushner reveals some details on meetings with Russians
Kushner also revealed some damaging details about his part in his 11-page statement released before the closed-door meeting with the Senate Intelligence Committee. He pointed out that he did try to set up a communications line at the Russian embassy last December to speak with Kremlin authorities but the Russian ambassador refused.
Initially, the Russian ambassador asked if Trump and his aides had a secure line for them to talk to the Russian authorities but the president’s team could not provide one, so Kushner suggested using the line at the Russian embassy.
Ivanka Trump's husband also said that his failure to report about the meetings with the Russians was not his fault but blamed one of his aides because the aide submitted a different form instead of the needed SF-86, which should be filled in with details about meetings with foreigners.
The new revelations of Kushner raised questions about his real motives as a senior White House advisor. The statement came after Kushner released his final financial disclosure. The disclosure also stirred comments from many people as he said he “inadvertently omitted” the $10.6 million additional assets in the amended version of his financial disclosure. Critics believe his assets and his businesses would be in conflict with his role as a senior adviser.
CNN reported the full 11-page statement of Kushner and towards the end, he said that his voluntary release of the details is something he hopes would put the issues to rest.
