Don’t Blame Jared — It’s All His Assistant’s Fault

Jared Kushner Image by Getty Images

By Nathan Guttman July 25, 2017

Is President Trump’s son-in-law and top adviser trying to scapegoat an unnamed assistant?

In his written testimony to the Senate Intelligence Committee Friday, Kushner had a lengthy explanation about omitting his meeting with Russian officials from White House disclosure forms. Kushner’s defense line, in short, was: “It wasn’t me, it was my assistant.”

Kushner claims that the unnamed aide, based in Washington, misunderstood an email sent to by Kushner and therefore “prematurely” filed the disclosure form before all information regarding the Russian meetings was added.

This assistant could now hold the key for verifying Kushner’s account.

Lawrence O’Donnell on MSNBC said Monday that Kushner’s assistant “may become the Rose Mary Woods of this investigation.” Rose Mary Woods was Richard Nixon’s White House secretary who, during the Watergate investigation, took responsibility for erasing the crucial 18.5 minutes from his Oval Office tapes.

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.

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