According to recent reports, Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser, is under FBI scrutiny as part of the Russia investigation.
Reports say investigators believe Jared Kushner has relevant information, but he is not necessarily suspected of a crime.
The FBI is looking into potential Russian meddling in the last year’s election and links with Donald Trump’s campaign. The president denies any collusion.
Jared Kushner’s lawyer said his client would co-operate with any inquiry.
Donald Trump has described the Russia investigations as “the single greatest witch hunt of a politician in American history”.
US intelligence agencies believe Russia tried to tip the election in favor of Donald Trump, who beat his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton.
Image source Wikimedia
US officials, who were not named, told NBC News that the interest in Jared Kushner did not mean the investigators suspected him of a crime or intended to charge him.
Separately, the Washington Post reported that the investigators were focusing on meetings Jared Kushner held last year with the Russian ambassador to the US, Sergei Kislyak, and a banker from Moscow, Sergei Gorkov.
Sergei Gorkov is the head of Vnesheconombank, which has been subject to sanctions imposed by the Obama administration in response to Russia’s annexation of Crimea and its support for separatists in eastern Ukraine.
Vnesheconombank is under the control of Russian PM Dmitri Medvedev and other members of the government, and has been used to fund major projects such as the 2014 Winter Olympics in the southern Russian resort of Sochi.
Jared Kushner, 36, has said he did not discuss sanctions with Sergei Gorkov.
Last week, former FBI Director Robert Mueller was named by the justice department as special counsel to oversee the Russia inquiry.
Congress is also looking into Moscow’s alleged meddling in the 2016 election and any Trump campaign ties.
Jared Kushner has already agreed to discuss his Russian contacts with the Senate Intelligence Committee.
Calls for a special investigation have mounted since President Trump fired the most recent FBI director, James Comey, earlier this month.
The White House has been engulfed in crisis over allegations that President Trump asked James Comey to drop an inquiry into links between his ex-national security adviser Michael Flynn and Russia.
Michael Flynn was forced out in February after he misled the vice-president about his conversations with Russia’s ambassador before Donald Trump took office in January.
Russia has repeatedly denied any involvement in the US presidential election.
Kushner Companies, owned by Jared Kushner’s sister, has pulled out of presentations planned for China this weekend.
The company was scheduled to pitch real estate opportunities to investors in the southern cities of Shenzhen and Guangzhou at the weekend.
Last week, Nicole Meyer Kushner came under fire for using her brother’s name in a pitch. Jared Kushner is President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and Ivanka Trump’s husband.
Image source Flickr
Critics accused Nicole Meyer Kushner’s company of playing up the family’s White House links. Kushner Companies was courting investors for a New Jersey development called 1 Journal Square. Ethics watchdogs said Meyer appeared to be leveraging family ties to the White House to enrich the family business.
Kushner Companies said the comments were misconstrued but has apologized.
Nicole Meyer Kushner and Kushner Companies president Laurent Morali had been included in promotional material for the upcoming events.
However, on May 11, James Yolles, a spokesman for the company, said in a statement: “No one from Kushner Companies will be in China this weekend.”
The committee is examining Russia’s alleged interference in November election.
The US intelligence community believes alleged Russian hacking during the presidential election was done to help Donald Trump defeat Hillary Clinton.
Russia has denied the allegations and President Trump has branded the story “fake news”.
There are two congressional investigations into the issue, plus an FBI one.
Image source Wikimedia
The Senate committee wants to question him about two meetings he allegedly arranged with senior Russians, officials told the New York Times say.
However, Jared Kushner’s staff have said that so far his offer to be questioned has not been answered.
Jared Kushner, 36, was a senior adviser to Donald Trump during the election campaign
His first meeting was with Russian Ambassador Sergei Kislyak at Trump Tower in New York in December. The second was with the head of Russia’s state-owned development bank.
White House staff told the New York Times nothing significant was discussed and members of the president-elect’s team routinely met Russians and other foreign delegations.
Meanwhile, Jared Kushner has been picked to lead a new White House team that aims to overhaul government bureaucracy.
It will have sweeping powers to reform procedures, with technology and data a key area and the help of Apple CEO Tim Cook and Microsoft founder Bill Gates reportedly enlisted.
Jared Kushner told the newspaper the “government should be run like a great American company”.
Jared Kushner already advises the president on foreign relations, and is said to have been influential in helping President Trump choose staff for his campaign and in government.
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