Jared Kushner Becomes Person of Interest to Federal Investigation
Will these accusations stick, or are they just white noise?
By Kyle Neary
The Progressive Teen Staff Writer
THOUGH THE WHITE HOUSE ACKNOWLEDGED THE MEETING IN MARCH, it was only recently that anonymous officials briefed on the meeting revealed its subject matter.
The meeting is of particular interest at the moment as the aforesaid FBI probe has flagged it as suspicious. Kushner’s proposal allegedly involved his use of the communication channels directly between the US embassy and Moscow since they are some of the few means that are secure from surveillance by US intelligence agencies, namely the FBI, which many have reasonably speculated Trump attempted to evade in his firing of director James Comey — a decision reportedly backed by Kushner.
Not only does such a proposal raise concerns over why Kushner felt such secrecy to be necessary; it also seems to point to the incompetence of Trump’s senior adviser. First, while back-channels are a diplomatic norm, Kushner’s presumption that he, a private citizen, would be trusted to maintain one, reflects a blatant ignorance toward foreign policy operations. Secondly, by using such channels, Kushner would leave communication entirely in the hand of Russian intelligence. That said, the proposal would also expose Russian communication technology to an American official; therefore, no such back-channel seems to formerly have been established.
Per CNN, Kushner is technically not under investigation, has not been accused of any wrongdoing, and has not been contacted by the FBI. Yet he is certainly of interest to the FBI investigation not only because of the recently scrutinized back-channel discussions, but also on account of his oversight of the Trump campaign’s data analytics program, which targeted voters in states like Wisconsin and Michigan. The program received aid from Russian hacking and information manipulation, but it is uncertain whether that was with or without the campaign’s knowledge. On the whole, the Trump administration has been markedly unclear about its ties to Russia; for example, Kushner’s lawyer claimed that he remembered no calls with Kislyak between April and November 2016, despite a Reuters report that six intelligence officials attest to multiple phone calls between the two in that time period.
“[Kushner] is certainly of interest to the FBI investigation not only because of the recently scrutinized back-channel discussions, but also on account of his oversight of the Trump campaign’s data analytics program, which targeted voters in states like Wisconsin and Michigan.”
Kushner has attracted investigative attention for a number of other Russian ties, among them his possible entanglement with Russian finance. On top of Russian billionaire Yuri Milner’s stake in Kushner’s real estate company, Kushner is suspected of having other reasons for “cozying” up to Russian money. Shortly after his meeting at Trump Tower with Kislyak and Flynn, Kushner also met there with Sergey Nikolaevich Gorkov, CEO of Vnesheconombank, a bank owned by Russia, as reported by Business Insider. Vnesheconombank has been found by the US Department of Justice to have been the cover for espionage and spy operations perpetrated by the Kremlin in the states.
The FBI is presently looking into the possibility that Gorkov and Kushner discussed lifting US economic sanctions on Russia in return for Russian investment in US business ventures of Trump associates such as Kushner himself. Said sanctions were implemented after Russia’s annexation of Crimea during the administration of President Obama, with whom Hillary Clinton was closely aligned. Whereas Russians promulgated positive coverage of Trump during the 2016 presidential campaign, they pushed negative coverage of Clinton. The suspicion concerning Kushner’s and Gorkov’s meeting is compounded by conflicting accounts from the Kremlin and the White House over its purpose; the former claimed that the two met to discuss “practices of foreign development banks” with Kushner there as the “head of Kushner companies”; the latter purported that they met to discuss future foreign policy, with Kushner as a representative of Trump during his transition to the presidency.
“Vnesheconombank has been found by the US Department of Justice to have been the cover for espionage and spy operations perpetrated by the Kremlin in the states.”
The addition of Kushner to the circle of officials involved in Trump’s Russia scandal has mixed significance. On one hand, suspicion concerning Kushner, the president’s son-in-law (whose position as senior adviser barely obeys nepotism laws), arguably brings the Russia probe closer to Trump himself than ever. But the reality is that Kushner’s presently known involvement does not constitute criminal grounds — not even grounds for a formal investigation. While NBC does report that Congressional aides have suggested that the Senate intelligence committee may be interested in questioning Kushner, and Kushner’s staff has promised his compliance in such a scenario, little is likely to come from the interest in Kushner unless the content of his Russian meetings is proven to be nefarious.
Kushner’s collusion with Russia remains, on the whole, quite dubious — as does his future at the White House, as the positions of himself and wife Ivanka Trump (“Assistant to the President,” an ambiguous role with nondescript duties) on Pennsylvania Avenue have always been shaky but are more so as the former becomes less of an asset and more of a liability. Regardless, the growing amount of evidence against him signals the larger guilt of the Trump administration’s involvement of Russia. It should be kept in mind that similar allegations have been levied against several other members of Trump’s team and the president himself. Most of their involvement with Russia is legally dubious; some, such as Michael Flynn’s violation of the Constitution’s emoluments clause, has been simply illegal. With simultaneous FBI and Congressional investigation into Russia and the 2016 election, the list of conspirators — and conspiracies — can be expected only to grow.
