“I did not collude, nor know of anyone else in the campaign who colluded, with any foreign government,” President Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner said in a statement ahead of a closed-door meeting today before the Senate Intelligence Committee.
He is also expected to meet Tuesday with the House Intelligence Committee. Both of the committees are conducting investigations into possible links between Trump associates and Russian officials during the 2016 presidential campaign.
In the 11-page statement, Kushner states that he had “hardly any” contact with Russia or Russia representatives during the campaign.
He says that he was present for a highly-scrutinized meeting with a Russian attorney last summer. Trump’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., recently released emails indicating that an intermediary had promised damaging information about Hillary Clinton from the Kremlin-connected lawyer.
“When I got there, the person who has since been identified as a Russian attorney was talking about the issue of a ban on U.S. adoptions of Russian children,” Kushner states. “I had no idea why that topic was being raised and quickly determined that my time was not well-spent at this meeting.”
He says that he has “tried to be fully transparent” in the form required to obtain a security clearance, “above and beyond what is required.”
Kushner has faced scrutiny for not initially including meetings with Russian officials on that form, called the SF-86. Kushner says in that the form was “prematurely submitted due to a miscommunication” with his assistant. He adds that it was not just information pertaining to Russians missing — “all foreign contacts were omitted.”
