Did Jared Throw Don Jr. Under The Bus?

Donald Trump Jr. Image by Getty Images

Image by Getty Images
The tightening Russian investigation is quickly evolving into a potential Trump family feud.
Analyzing Jared Kushner’s written testimony to the Senate Intelligence Committee, The Washington Post’s Greg Sargent noted how Kushner, “with scalpel-like precision,” sought to shift his responsibility for a controversial meeting with a Russian lawyer to his brother-in-law Donald Trump Jr. — and to distance himself from any discussion of campaign-related dirt in that meeting.
Kushner started by making clear it was Trump Jr. who set up the meeting and asked him to join. Then he argued that the email inviting him to the meeting was “on top of a long back and forth that I did not read at the time.”
The “long back and forth” included a clear indication that the meeting was set to discuss damning information the Russians had supposedly held on Hillary Clinton. That would amount to the quid in any quid pro quo between the Russians and the Trumps.
Kushner notes that he had arrived late to the meeting and quickly concluded that it “was a waste of our time.”
Taken together, the Post argues, Kushner’s account does nothing to challenge the facts regarding the Russian meeting, “It just separates him from them.”
Contact Nathan Guttman at [email protected] or on Twitter, @nathanguttman
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 Passover gift today!
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Most Popular
- 1
Opinion My Jewish moms group ousted me because I work for J Street. Is this what communal life has come to?
- 2
Fast Forward Suspected arsonist intended to beat Gov. Josh Shapiro with a sledgehammer, investigators say
- 3
Fast Forward How Coke’s Passover recipe sparked an antisemitic conspiracy theory
- 4
Politics Meet America’s potential first Jewish second family: Josh Shapiro, Lori, and their 4 kids
In Case You Missed It
-
Opinion This Nazi-era story shows why Trump won’t fix a terrifying deportation mistake
-
Opinion I operate a small Judaica business. Trump’s tariffs are going to squelch Jewish innovation.
-
Fast Forward Language apps are putting Hebrew school in teens’ back pockets. But do they work?
-
Books How a Jewish boy from Canterbury became a Zulu chieftain
-
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.