John F. Kelly, the Homeland Security secretary, played down reports of a back channel. The president, meanwhile, resumed using Twitter as a weapon.<\/b>
\nWASHINGTON \u2014 John F. Kelly, President Trump\u2019s Homeland Security secretary, on Sunday defended a reported effort by Jared Kushner, the president\u2019s embattled son-in-law and key adviser, to establish a secret channel with Russia during the transition, calling it \u201ca good thing.\u201d
\u201cAny information flow into the government and then considered by the government, I won\u2019 t criticize that, \u201d Mr. Kelly said in an interview on ABC\u2019s \u201cThis Week.\u201d \u201cAll of these lines of communication are a positive thing, in my opinion.\u201d
Mr. Kelly\u2019s remarks came amid news that Mr. Kushner was a focus of investigations into possible collusion between Russia and Mr. Trump\u2019s associates during the campaign and transition, a development that has consumed an already-beleaguered White House.
The president, home again after a nine-day trip overseas, quickly turned his Twitter account back into a political weapon on Sunday, assailing what he called the \u201cfabricated lies made up by the #FakeNews media.\u201d
Mr. Trump\u2019s administration has been straining to contain the fallout from news reports that Mr. Kushner spoke in December with Russia\u2019s ambassador, Sergey I. Kislyak, about establishing a secret channel to Moscow to discuss the war in Syria and other matters.
In television interviews on Sunday, Mr. Kelly defended Mr. Kushner\u2019s conduct and his character generally.
\u201cHe\u2019s a great guy, decent guy. His No. 1 interest, really, is the nation, \u201d Mr. Kelly said on NBC\u2019s \u201cMeet the Press.\u201d \u201cSo, you know, there\u2019s a lot of different ways to communicate, back channel, publicly with other countries. I don\u2019 t see any big issue here relative to Jared.\u201d
Mr. Kelly also echoed Mr. Trump\u2019s aggressive posture against leaks, calling American officials\u2019 disclosure of information about last week\u2019s bombing in Manchester, England, \u201cdarn close to treason.\u201d
Soon, Mr. Trump had fired off a message of his own on the subject.
\u201cBritish Prime Minister May was very angry that the info the U. K. gave to U. S. about Manchester was leaked, \u201d he wrote on Twitter. \u201cGave me full details!\u201d
It was a familiar morning for Mr. Trump on his favored medium \u2014 and for a nation that had, for a little more than a week, gone without the president\u2019s stream-of-consciousness missives.
The president had largely avoided provocative Twitter posts during his journey through the Middle East and Europe, but he quickly returned to form after arriving at the White House late on Saturday, pushing back on Sunday morning against the flurry of news reports about Mr. Kushner.
\u201cWhenever you see the words \u2018sources say\u2019 in the fake news media, and they don\u2019 t mention names, \u201d Mr. Trump wrote on Twitter, \u201cit is very possible that those sources don\u2019 t exist but are made up by fake news writers. #FakeNews is the enemy!\u201d
The president woke up to find headlines and television talk shows focused on the latest turns in inquiries that he had been able to put aside for much of his trip. The freshest developments brought the matter into his own family.
News articles also focused on efforts by administration aides to develop a damage control plan to handle the controversies. That plan would potentially seek to wall off questions involving the investigations from day-to-day governing by creating a separate war room in the White House, assembling a high-powered legal team outside the White House and shaking up the president\u2019s communications team.
Aides expected Mr. Trump to begin meeting with lawyers as early as Sunday to talk about a way forward, but one consensus among administration lawyers and private lawyers consulted by the White House in recent days was that Mr. Trump needed to restrain himself on Twitter, rather than create new problems with impulsive or unfiltered messages.
Mr. Trump demonstrated during his travels to Saudi Arabia, Israel, the West Bank, the Vatican, Belgium and Italy that he could be disciplined about his use of social media. Over the nine-day trip, he or his aides used the president\u2019s Twitter account to promote his foreign and domestic policies, thank his hosts and otherwise stay on message.
But he seemed on Sunday to be as aggrieved as ever by what he considers unfair news coverage. \u201cIt is my opinion that many of the leaks coming out of the White House are fabricated lies made up by the #FakeNews media, \u201d he wrote on Sunday morning.
If Mr. Trump continued his television-watching habit on Sunday, it was unlikely that his mood improved.
Representative Adam B. Schiff of California, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee \u2014 which is conducting one of the investigations into possible ties between Trump campaign and Russia \u2014 repeated some Democrats\u2019 calls for a review of Mr. Kushner\u2019s security clearance.
If the reports that Mr. Kushner had discussed a secret channel were true, Mr. Schiff said, \u201cIt\u2019s obviously very concerning.\u201d
\u201cYou have to ask, \u201d he said on ABC\u2019s \u201cThis Week, \u201d \u201cwell, who are they hiding the conversations from?\u201d
James R. Clapper Jr., who was until January the director of national intelligence, said that although he had not seen \u201cany smoking-gun-certitude evidence of collusion\u201d by the time of his departure, his antenna was up.
\u201cMy dashboard warning light was clearly on, \u201d he said on \u201cMeet the Press.\u201d \u201cAnd I think that was the case with all of us in the intelligence community, very concerned about the nature of these approaches to the Russians.\u201d
The president did receive a measure of cover from some congressional Republicans, who declined on Sunday to criticize Mr. Kushner\u2019s behavior.
Senator Bob Corker of Tennessee, the chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, said Mr. Kushner \u201chas said that he\u2019s more than willing to answer any and all questions.\u201d
\u201cThey reached out to us yesterday to make sure that we knew that was the case, and I\u2019 m sure he\u2019s willing to do so, \u201d Mr. Corker added on \u201cMeet the Press.\u201d
And Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina registered his skepticism over the reports themselves.
\u201cI don\u2019 t trust this story as far as I can throw it, \u201d he said on CNN\u2019s \u201cState of the Union.\u201d \u201cI think it makes no sense that the Russian ambassador would report back to Moscow on a channel that he most likely knows that we\u2019 re monitoring. The whole story line is suspicious.\u201d
The Washington Post was first to report last week on Mr. Kushner\u2019s suggestion to the Russian ambassador, and three people informed about it confirmed it to The New York Times.
Mr. Trump, punching away on Twitter, was eager to move on to other subjects.
He singled out last week\u2019s special election in Montana for an open House seat that the Republican candidate, Greg Gianforte, won the day after he was charged with misdemeanor assault for attacking a reporter. Mr. Trump made no comment about Mr. Gianforte\u2019s actions, complaining instead that Republicans did not receive more credit for winning a district that the party has held for 20 years.
\u201cDoes anyone notice how the Montana Congressional race was such a big deal to Dems & Fake News until the Republican won?\u201d he wrote .<\/p>\n

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