Jared Kushner’s Russia ‘Back Channel’ Spurs Questions From Mueller
Jared Kushner Image by Getty Images
By Josh Nathan-Kazis May 1, 2018
Special prosecutor Robert Mueller wants to ask President Trump about Jared Kushner’s efforts to open a secret backchannel to the Russians during the presidential transition, the New York Times reported yesterday.
Mueller’s list, leaked to the Times, includes dozens of questions for the president. Only one of the questions mentions Kushner by name. But it indicates pervading interest by Mueller in Kushner’s efforts to serve as a quiet link between the Russian governmentand the campaign.
Kushner has admitted to pursuing a backchannel with Russian ambassador. He told Congress that he had suggested using “an existing communications channel at the Russian embassy.”
According to the list obtained by the Times, Mueller plans to ask what the president knew during the presidential transition the efforts at opening the back-channel. It’s one of a number of back channels that Mueller has questions about, including one involving Erik Prince, the mercenary and brother of Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, and others about Roger Stone and Wikileaks, and Paul Manafort and Russia.
Contact Josh Nathan-Kazis at [email protected] or on Twitter, @joshnathankazis.
This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news this Passover. All donations are being matched by the Forward Board - up to $100,000.
This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.
With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give this Passover is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
