Jared Kushner Focus of FBI Russia Probe; DNC Calls for Suspension of Security Clearance

From: Towleroad

Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner is a key focus of the FBI’s probe into the Trump campaign’s contacts with Russia and the DNC is calling for his security clearance to be suspended.

The Hill reports:

“The FBI’s Russia investigation reached Trump’s backyard, and now it’s in his house,” DNC deputy communications director Adrienne Watson said in a statement Thursday. “Kushner’s security clearance should be suspended until the FBI’s findings are complete.”

Investigators are focusing on meetings held by Kushner after Trump was elected, the Washington Post reports:

In early December, Kushner met in New York with the Russian ambassador to the United States, Sergey Kislyak, and he later sent a deputy to meet with Kislyak. Flynn was also present at the early-December meeting, and later that month, Flynn held a call with Kislyak to discuss U.S.-imposed sanctions against Russia. Flynn initially mischaracterized the conversation, even to Vice President Pence — ultimately prompting his ouster from the White House.

Kushner also met in December with Sergey Gorkov, the head of Vnesheconombank, which has been the subject of U.S. sanctions following Russia’s annexation of Crimea and its support of separatists in eastern Ukraine.

In addition to the December meetings, a former senior intelligence official said FBI agents had been looking closely at earlier exchanges between Trump associates and the Russians dating to the spring of 2016, including one at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington. Kushner and Kislyak — along with close Trump adviser and current attorney general Jeff Sessions — were present at an April 2016 event at the Mayflower where then-candidate Trump promised in a speech to seek better relations with Russia. It is unclear whether Kushner and Kislyak interacted there.