Jared Kushner Pushed Trump To Fight Back Against Special Counsel

Jared Kushner Image by Getty Images

By Nathan Guttman May 18, 2017

Jared Kushner has been widely described as the moderating force in President Trump’s White House.

But he may be about to lose this title.

According to the New York Times, when Trump huddled with his close advisers Wednesday evening seeking a response to the decision to appoint a special counsel for the Russian investigation, Kushner was the one pushing his father-in-law to fight back.

Two administration officials told the Times that Kushner was among the few “urging the president to counterattack,” but he was outnumbered. Trump agreed to go with a carefully-worded statement stating his determination to move on.

Still, Kushner, who was behind the idea of firing FBI director James Comey, may have had the last word once again. Thursday morning, President Trump took to twitter and seemed to have followed his son-in-laws advise. He lashed out at the decision, blamed Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, and called the move “the single greatest witch hunt of a politician in American history!”

Contact Nathan Guttman at [email protected] or on Twitter @nathanguttman

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.