Jared Kushner Also Met With Russian Ambassador During Transition

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By Nathan Guttman March 4, 2017

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 guttman@forward.com

Nathan Guttman, staff writer, was the Forward’s Washington bureau chief. He joined the staff in 2006 after serving for five years as Washington correspondent for the Israeli dailies Haaretz and The Jerusalem Post. In Israel, he was the features editor for Ha’aretz and chief editor of Channel 1 TV evening news. He was born in Canada and grew up in Israel. He is a graduate of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

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