Report: Senate panel to question Jared Kushner over meetings with Russians

Jared Kushner, President Trump's son-in-law, is reportedly slated to be interrogated by the Senate Committee over allegedly unreported meetings with Russian officials.

By JPOST.COM STAFF
Updated: MARCH 27, 2017 15:34
Jared Kushner (photo credit: REUTERS)
Jared Kushner
(photo credit: REUTERS)
Jared Kushner, US President Donald Trump's son-in-law and the president's close adviser on foreign affairs, is slated to be questioned by the US Senate Committee regarding his meetings with Russian officials, according to a New York Times report released on Monday.
Kushner, an Orthodox Jew who was appointed by Trump in order to broker a peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians and acts as a shadow diplomat for the White House, is expected to be questioned by Senate interrogators who are currently conducting an ongoing inquiry into the connections between the Trump administration and Russian officials.
Citing administration and congressional officials, the New York Times reported that the Senate Intelligence Committee is interested in questioning Kushner regarding meetings he had arranged and held with Russian envoy Sregey I. Kislyak.
The Times claimed that while the White House had only acknowledged an early December meeting between Kushner and Kislyak, Kushner also held an unreported meeting with Sergey N.Gorkov, the head of Russia's state-owned development bank, the Vnesheconombank.
Other reported meetings include a second meeting between Kislyak and Kushner's deputy as well as an additional meeting between Kushner.
Commeting on the report, a White House spokeswoman confirmed that Kushner had indeed met with the banker and said that nothing of consequence was discussed in their meeting. Gorkov could not be reached for comment. The spokeswoman said that Kushner "isn't trying to hide anything" and that he was willing to discuss the meetings with Senate investigators.
The spokeswoman went on to add that there was no indication that Kushner was the focus of the investigation and added that the Federal Bureau of Investigations has yet to have contacted Kushner.
If the Senate Intelligence Committee does decide to press ahead with Kushner's interrogation he will become the closest person to the US president to be questioned over what the media has dubbed 'the Russian affair.'
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Trump's administration has come under fire several times during the president's first hundred days in office due to revelations that officials in the US administration failed to report their ties to Russian officials during the Trump presidency and prior to his election.
Mike Flynn, the former National Security Adviser, was fired earlier in the year after misleading Vice President Mike Pence regarding the nature of conversations he had with the Russian ambassador, claiming that he didn't discuss anti-Russia sanctions while his communications, that were intercepted, proved that he did.
Before the Flynn controversy died down, Attorney-General Jeff Sessions was the focus of a different investigation after it was discovered that he did not disclose the fact that he met with the Russian envoy during Trump's race for presidency while being questioned at his Senate confirmation hearing.
Kushner's interrogation could potentially further fan the flames, capturing the media's attention regarding a controversy many believe the American president would like the public to forget.