Jared Kushner Also Met With Russian Ambassador During Transition

Image by Getty Images
Add Jared Kushner to the list of Trump advisers who held talks with Russian officials during the transition period.
The White House confirmed Thursday that Trump’s son-in-law attended a December meeting with Russia’s ambassador to the U.S., Sergey Kislyak, alongside Michael Flynn.
Flynn has since lost his job as National Security Adviser due to similar meetings and talks with Kislyak and Attorney General Jeff Sessions was just forced to recuse himself from overseeing an investigation into Russia’s involvement in the elections after it has been revealed that he had met with the ambassador.
Kushner, according to White House spokeswoman Hope Hicks, took part in a 20-minute conversation with Kislyak held at the Trump Tower in order to “establish a line of communication” between the incoming administration and Russia. “Jared has had meetings with many other foreign countries and representatives — as many as two dozen other foreign countries’ leaders and representatives,” Hicks added.
While meetings with foreign representatives are legal and common for presidential transition team, Flynn came under fire for allegedly discussing Russia’s reaction to sanctions imposed on it by the Obama administration and later lying about the talks. Kushner, according to the report, played a minor role in the meeting with Kislyak and has not met with the Russian ambassador since.
Contact Nathan Guttman at [email protected]
The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.
Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism you rely on. Make a gift today!
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Most Popular
- 1
Opinion The dangerous Nazi legend behind Trump’s ruthless grab for power
- 2
Opinion A Holocaust perpetrator was just celebrated on US soil. I think I know why no one objected.
- 3
Culture Did this Jewish literary titan have the right idea about Harry Potter and J.K. Rowling after all?
- 4
Opinion I first met Netanyahu in 1988. Here’s how he became the most destructive leader in Israel’s history.
In Case You Missed It
-
Opinion Gaza and Trump have left the Jewish community at war with itself — and me with a bad case of alienation
-
Fast Forward Trump administration restores student visas, but impact on pro-Palestinian protesters is unclear
-
Fast Forward Deborah Lipstadt says Trump’s campus antisemitism crackdown has ‘gone way too far’
-
Fast Forward 5 Jewish senators accuse Trump of using antisemitism as ‘guise’ to attack universities
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
Republish This Story
Please read before republishing
We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines.
You must comply with the following:
- Credit the Forward
- Retain our pixel
- Preserve our canonical link in Google search
- Add a noindex tag in Google search
See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.
To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.