Jared Kushner seems to be emerging as a central figure in Russia’s involvement with the Trump administration.
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WASHINGTON (CBSMiami/CNN) — Jared Kushner seems to be emerging as a central figure in Russia’s involvement with the Trump administration.
Sources said he previously told investigators he did not recall anyone on the Trump campaign communicating with Wikileaks. An email he sent, however, references Donald Trump Jr.’s conversations with the website.
Now the new request from lawmakers for more of Jared Kushner’s personal communications about Russia and Wikileaks is just the latest example of how the president’s son-in-law and senior adviser, was involved in most of the key moments of interest for investigators seeking answers on Russian meddling and possible collusion with the Trump campaign.
“I have been fully transparent in providing all requested information,” Kushner said on the White House lawn.
His role is being looked at across many areas of the Special Counsel and Congressional investigations, including revelations just this week that he forwarded an email about Donald Trump Jr.’s communications with Wikileaks to then-campaign aide Hope Hicks.
He also played a role in the firing of former FBI Director James Comey by supporting the decision, and CNN has learned investigators are asking witnesses about it as part of an obstruction of justice probe.
He spearheaded the campaign’s data analytics operation, which is now under scrutiny by investigators looking at whether the Russians had any help with targeting fake news during the election.
CNN reported Russian trolls, at times, targeted specific states on Facebook, including Michigan and Wisconsin, two states Trump narrowly won.
The campaign denies working with the Russians.
During the height of the presidential campaign, Kushner, along with Don Jr. and then-campaign chairman Paul Manafort, took a meeting in Trump Tower with a Russian lawyer that Don Jr. was told had dirt on Hillary Clinton.
It was a meeting he failed to disclose several times on his security clearance form. Kushner said the meeting turned out to be so insignificant that he accidentally left it off his form.
His apparent lack of transparency has drawn the ire of Democrats.
“He’s definitely apparently omitting documents and that is the reason that I have long advocated subpoenas for all of the documents, that’s the only way we will know whether he’s producing all of them,” said Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), who’s also on the Judiciary Committee. “He is certainly doing himself no favor by withholding some, apparently. And I think he ought to be subpoenaed to appear before the committee, in open, under oath, at a hearing.”
Kushner also held a secret meeting at Trump Tower with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak and Michael Flynn during the transition where they discussed using the Russian embassy’s secure communications to discuss Syria policy.
Kushner denied it was meant as a “secret back channel.”
Another meeting drawing scrutiny is the one he had with Russian government banker Sergey Gorkov during the transition. In his testimony to Congress, Kushner denied they discussed business matters but the bank released a statement saying business was the purpose of Gorkov’s trip.
And Kushner did not initially disclose a personal email account he used for official business when he was interviewed in September by the Senate Intelligence Committee.
Kushner’s lawyer said his client is voluntary providing documents to Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s team and Congressional investigators, and has been cooperative throughout the process.
It is not known if Mueller has interviewed Kushner as part of his Russia probe. Experts believe that if he hasn’t, he will.
