Thread: Jared Kushner wanted secret communications channel with Russia

Jared Kushner wanted secret communications channel with Russia, new report alleges

Published May 26, 2017 Fox News

Jared Kushner, the son-in-law of President Donald Trump and top White House adviser, was seeking a private communications channel with the Kremlin, a new report says. (AP)


--Developing --
Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and one of the senior advisers in the Trump administration, was seeking a private communications channel with the Kremlin, according to a new report in The Washington Post.

Kushner and Russian ambassador Sergei Kislyak spoke of the possibility of coordinating a secret and secure communications channel between the Trump transition team and the Kremlin, the paper said.

Kushner suggested the use of Russian diplomatic facilities as a way to shield their pre-inauguration discussions from monitoring, U.S. officials briefed on intelligence reports told The Post.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017...t-alleges.html

Russian ambassador told Moscow that Kushner wanted secret communications channel with Kremlin

Jared Kushner, the White House adviser, listens as President Trump and Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni participate in a joint news conference in the White House, April 20. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)

By Ellen Nakashima, Adam Entous and Greg Miller
May 26 at 7:01 PM

Jared Kushner and Russia’s ambassador to Washington discussed the possibility of setting up a secret and secure communications channel between Trump’s transition team and the Kremlin, using Russian diplomatic facilities in an apparent move to shield their pre-inauguration discussions from monitoring, according to U.S. officials briefed on intelligence reports.

Ambassador Sergei Kislyak reported to his superiors in Moscow that Kushner, son-in-law and confidant to then-President-elect Trump, made the proposal during a meeting on Dec. 1 or 2 at Trump Tower, according to intercepts of Russian communications that were reviewed by U.S. officials. Kislyak said Kushner suggested using Russian diplomatic facilities in the United States for the communications.

The meeting also was attended by Michael Flynn, Trump’s first national security adviser.

The White House disclosed the fact of the meeting only in March, playing down its significance. But people familiar with the matter say the FBI now considers the encounter, as well as another meeting Kushner had with a Russian banker, to be of investigative interest.

Kislyak reportedly was taken aback by the suggestion of allowing an American to use Russian communications gear at its embassy or consulate — a proposal that would have carried security risks for Moscow as well as the Trump team.

Team Trump’s ties to Russian interests VIEW GRAPHIC


[Jared Kushner now a focus in Russia investigation]

Neither the meeting nor the communications of Americans involved were under U.S. surveillance, officials said.

The White House declined to comment. Robert Kelner, a lawyer for Flynn, declined to comment. The Russian Embassy did not respond to requests for comment.

Russia at times feeds false information into communication streams it suspects are monitored as a way of sowing misinformation and confusion among U.S. analysts. But officials said that it’s unclear what Kislyak would have had to gain by falsely characterizing his contacts with Kushner to Moscow, particularly at a time when the Kremlin still saw the prospect of dramatically improved relations with Trump.

Kushner’s apparent interest in establishing a secret channel with Moscow, rather than relying on U.S. government systems, has added to the intrigue surrounding the Trump administration’s relationship with Russia.

[CIA director alerted FBI to pattern of contacts between Russian officials and Trump campaign associates]

To some officials, it also reflects a staggering naivete.

The FBI closely monitors the communications of Russian officials in the United States, and it maintains a nearly constant surveillance of its diplomatic facilities. The National Security Agency monitors the communications of Russian officials overseas.

Current and former U.S. intelligence officials said that although Russian diplomats have secure means of communicating with Moscow, Kushner’s apparent request for access to such channels was extraordinary.

“How would he trust that the Russians wouldn’t leak it on their side?” said one former senior intelligence official. The FBI would know that a Trump transition official was going in and out of the embassy, which would cause “a great deal” of concern, he added. The entire idea, he said, “seems extremely naive or absolutely crazy.”

The discussion of a secret channel adds to a broader pattern of efforts by Trump’s closest advisers to obscure their contacts with Russian counterparts. Trump’s first national security adviser, Flynn, was forced to resign after a series of false statements about his conversations with Kislyak.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions recused himself from matters related to the Russia investigation after it was revealed that he had failed to disclose his own meetings with Kislyak when asked during congressional testimony about any contact with Russians.

Kushner’s interactions with Russians — including Kislyak and an executive for a Russian bank under U.S. sanctions — were not acknowledged by the White House until they were exposed in media reports.

It is common for senior advisers of a newly elected president to be in contact with foreign leaders and officials. But new administrations are generally cautious in their handling of interactions with Moscow, which U.S. intelligence agencies have accused of waging an unprecedented campaign to interfere in last year’s presidential race and help elect Trump.

Obama administration officials say members of the Trump transition team never approached them about arranging a secure communications channel with their Russian contacts, possibly because of concerns about leaks.

The State Department, the White House National Security Council and U.S. intelligence agencies all have the ability to set up secure communications channels with foreign leaders, though doing so for a transition team would be unusual.

Trump’s advisers were similarly secretive about meetings with leaders from the United Arab Emirates. The Obama White House only learned that the crown prince of Abu Dhabi was flying to New York in December to see Kushner, Flynn and Stephen K. Bannon, another top Trump adviser, because U.S. border agents in the UAE spotted the Emirate leader’s name on a flight manifest.

Russia would also have had reasons of its own to reject such an overture from Kushner. Doing so would require Moscow to expose its most sophisticated communications capabilities — which are likely housed in highly secure locations at diplomatic compounds — to an American.The Post was first alerted in mid-December to the meeting by an anonymous letter, which said, among other things, that Kushner had talked to Kislyak about setting up the communications channel. This week, officials who reviewed the letter and spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive intelligence said the portion about the secret channel was consistent with their understanding of events.

For instance, according to those officials and the letter, Kushner conveyed to the Russians that he was aware that it would be politically sensitive to meet publicly, but it was necessary for the Trump team to be able to continue their communication with Russian government officials.

In addition to their discussion about setting up the communications channel, Kushner, Flynn and Kislyak also talked about arranging a meeting between a representative of Trump and a “Russian contact” in a third country whose name was not identified, according to the anonymous letter.

The Post reported in April that Erik Prince, the former founder of the private security firm Blackwater and an informal adviser to the Trump transition team, met on Jan. 11 — nine days before Trump’s inauguration — in the Seychelles islands in the Indian Ocean with a representative of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world...=.d1b0ed8d63a2

Read more:

Flynn was warned by Trump transition officials about contacts with Russian ambassador

The strange Oval Office meeting between Trump, Lavrov and Kislyak

Political chaos in Washington is a return on investment for Moscow

If this is true the FBI should have all the contact information between the Clintons and Russia. All the shady dealing with Uranium 1 and Russia's Uranium deal with Hillary and Obama along with the donations from Russia to the Clinton Foundation. So why did we never hear any leaks or anything about any of it?

LOL!!! Oh my God, our "intel" community is bunch of loons. And anyone who believes a word of this is loonier than they are!!

The title of this article claims Kushner was pursuing a "secret" line of communication but another article says he wanted a "line of communication", presumably a private secure line of communication, something all private citizens, transition teams and officials should have. How can you conduct business government or private without secure telephone communications? It's growing abundantly clear that we don't have that anymore in the United States. What a travesty this is!!! Shame on NSA and FBI. Shame on you!!

Two top Trump advisers dodge Kushner questions



By Jeremy Diamond and Jeff Zeleny, CNN
Updated 11:05 AM ET, Sat May 27, 2017


Naxos, Italy (CNN)President Donald Trump's top economic and national security advisers on Saturday declined to comment on the swirl of allegations that Trump's son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner is facing regarding his contacts with Russian officials.

Kushner may have discussed creating a secret communications channel between the Trump transition team and the Kremlin with Russia's ambassador Sergei Kislyak, The Washington Post reported Friday, citing US officials briefed on intelligence reports.



Washington Post: Kushner proposed secret communication channel with Kremlin


Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster, the national security adviser, declined to say whether he would be concerned if a private citizen attempted to set up backchannel communications with a foreign government to influence US foreign policy and said he would not be concerned if a White House official attempted to do so.

"We have backchannel communications with a number of countries," McMaster said.

McMaster and Gary Cohn, the director of the National Economic Council, swatted away the questions after reports surfaced that Kushner considered setting up a secret line of communication with Russia to discuss military options in Syria and other matters. A source with knowledge of the matter confirmed to CNN that Kushner first discussed creating the backchannel in a meeting last December with the Russian ambassador.

Kushner was a private citizen at the time, not a US government official.

The details were shared with CNN as an explanation to The Washington Post reporting, which comes from intercepts of conversations between Russia's ambassador and Moscow.

Kislyak reportedly told higher-ups in Moscow that Kushner suggested the proposal in a December meeting at Trump Tower -- which former national security adviser Michael Flynn also attended. Kushner "suggested using Russian diplomatic facilities in the United States for the communications," the Post reported.

The idea was to have Flynn "speak directly with a senior military official in Moscow to discuss Syria and other security issues," The New York Times reported Friday, citing three people with knowledge of the discussion.

"That's something I'm not prepared to talk about," McMaster said when he was first asked about the allegations.

Cohn said: "We're not going to comment on Jared. We're just not going to comment."

Pressed repeatedly on the matter during a news conference on Saturday that was kept off camera at the White House's insistence, McMaster also said he was not "involved with or have any knowledge of" any attempt on Kushner's part to set up backchannel communications with Moscow.

The FBI, in the course of its investigation into Russian involvement in the 2016 election, is now also looking at Kushner's multiple roles in Trump's campaign operation and his contacts with Russian officials.

Kushner has acknowledged meeting during the transition with the Russian ambassador to Washington, but Reuters, citing seven current and former US officials, reported Friday that Kushner had several previously undisclosed contacts with Russia's ambassador -- including two phone calls between April and November of 2016.

McMaster was visibly frustrated as he faced a barrage of questions from reporters on Saturday about Kushner's contacts with the Russians. He urged reporters to instead ask him about foreign policy and national security issues that would have come up during the President's first foreign trip, which has been dogged by the incessant flow of new allegations surrounding the President's campaign associates' contacts with Russian officials.

http://www.cnn.com/2017/05/27/politi...n-hr-mcmaster/

Nothing to see here. Just a blown up story to diminish Trump's trip. The media keeps pumping out smoke hoping for a fire. IMO.

As much as I really hate to post anything fomt the New York Times since both the Times and the Washington Post have been caught printing outright lies - multiple times.

These accusations come from who? people? what people? Current and former government officials? Obama holdovers and the Obama administration? Well, they were all big tellers of truth - NOT. I do hope that an example is made when these Anonymous sources are ferreted out and that they go to jail.

Kushner Is Said to Have Discussed a Secret Channel to Talk to Russia

By MAGGIE HABERMAN, MARK MAZZETTI and MATT APUZZO
MAY 26, 2017

President Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser, Jared Kushner, at the White House last week.CreditDoug Mills/The New York Times

WASHINGTON — Jared Kushner, President Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser, spoke in December with Russia’s ambassador to the United States about establishing a secret communications channel between the Trump transition team and Moscow to discuss strategy in Syria and other policy issues, according to three people with knowledge of the discussion.

The conversation between Mr. Kushner and the ambassador, Sergey I. Kislyak, took place during a meeting at Trump Tower that Mr. Trump’s presidential transition team did not acknowledge at the time. Also present at the meeting was Michael T. Flynn, the retired general who would become Mr. Trump’s short-lived national security adviser, the three people said.

It is unclear who first proposed the communications channel, but the people familiar with the meeting said the idea was to have Mr. Flynn speak directly with a senior military official in Moscow to discuss Syria and other security issues. The communications channel was never set up, the people said.

The three people were not authorized to discuss the December meeting and spoke on the condition of anonymity. The White House declined to comment on Friday night.

News of the discussion was first reported by The Washington Post. The revelation has stoked new questions about Mr. Kushner’s connections to Russian officials at a time when the F.B.I. is conducting a wide-ranging investigation into Russia’s attempts to disrupt last year’s presidential election and whether any of Mr. Trump’s advisers assisted in the Russian campaign.

Current and former American officials said Mr. Kushner’s activities, like those of many others around Mr. Trump, are under scrutiny as part of the investigation. But Mr. Kushner is not currently the subject of a criminal investigation.

In the days after the meeting with Mr. Kislyak, Mr. Kushner had a separate meeting with Sergey N. Gorkov, a Russian banker with close ties to Russia’s president, Vladimir V. Putin.

The Post reported that the direct line between the transition team and the Kremlin in concept would have been conducted through Russian diplomatic facilities to avoid being monitored in American communication systems. The Post also reported that Mr. Kushner had proposed the communications channel and that it took Mr. Kislyak by surprise. The New York Times could not immediately confirm these details.

Even if the proposal was designed primarily as a conduit to discuss policy issues, it is unclear why such communications would have needed to be carried out though a secret channel.
American intelligence agencies first learned about the discussion several months ago, according to a senior American official who had been briefed on intelligence reports. It is unclear whether they learned about it from intercepted Russian communications or by other means.

Mr. Trump came into office promising improved relations with Russia on numerous issues, including greater cooperation to try to end the civil war in Syria. During the presidential campaign, he frequently criticized the Obama administration’s Syria policy as unnecessarily antagonistic toward Russia.

The idea behind the secret communications channel, the three people said, was for Russian military officials to brief Mr. Flynn about the Syrian war and to discuss ways to cooperate there. Neither side followed up on it. And less than two weeks later, the idea was dropped when Mr. Trump announced that Rex W. Tillerson, a former chief executive of Exxon Mobil who had worked closely with Russian officials on energy deals, was his choice to become secretary of state.

The interactions between Mr. Trump’s advisers and Mr. Kislyak have been a constant source of trouble for the new administration.

In February, Mr. Flynn had to resign as national security adviser for misleading Vice President Pence about the nature of phone calls he had in late December with the Russian ambassador. Mr. Flynn had told Mr. Pence that the two men had merely exchanged holiday pleasantries, when in fact they had discussed sanctions that the Obama administration had imposed on Russia for its campaign to disrupt the election.

Weeks later, Attorney General Jeff Sessions was forced to recuse himself from the Justice Department’s Russia investigation after it was revealed that he had not disclosed during his confirmation process meetings he had with Mr. Kislyak in 2016. Then, during a May 10 Oval Office meeting with Mr. Kislyak and the Russian foreign minister, Sergey V. Lavrov, Mr. Trump disclosed highly classified intelligence about the Islamic State to the Russians.

During that meeting, Mr. Trump also told the Russian officials that the firing of the F.B.I. director, James B. Comey — who was leading the bureau’s investigation into Moscow’s activities during the campaign — had relieved “great pressure” on him, according to a document summarizing the meeting.

On Friday, Reuters reported that Mr. Kushner had at least two previously undisclosed phone calls with Mr. Kislyak between April 2016 and Election Day. The calls focused on how to improve economic relations between the United States and Russia, and how the two countries could better cooperate in the fight against Islamist extremism, Reuters reported, citing six current and former American officials.

That article said it was unclear whether Mr. Kushner spoke to Mr. Kislyak on his own or with other advisers to Mr. Trump.

Jamie Gorelick, a lawyer for Mr. Kushner, said in a statement that her client “participated in thousands of calls in this time period.”

“He has no recollection of the calls as described,” she said. “We have asked for the dates of such alleged calls so we may look into and respond.”
“But we have not received such information,” Ms. Gorelick added.

Two congressional intelligence committees are conducting parallel investigations into Russian interference in the presidential campaign, and in recent weeks, the panels have accelerated their efforts to obtain documents from Mr. Trump’s campaign advisers, sometimes using subpoenas.

This week, the Senate Intelligence Committee asked the Trump campaign’s treasurer to preserve and produce all documents — including phone records and emails — dating to its official start in June 2015, according to one person associated with the campaign. The person, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the continuing investigation, said former staff members had been instructed to cooperate with the committee’s inquiry.

The person said the request came from Senators Richard M. Burr, Republican of North Carolina, and Mark Warner, Democrat of Virginia, the committee’s two senior members.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/26/u...h-kremlin.html

There's nothing wrong with any of it. I really don't understand what all the reporting is about. Anyone can meet or speak with the Ambassador of Russia or any Ambassador from any country.

Kushner asked Russian ambassador for back channel on Syria and other policy matters

• By ADAM KELSEY
• RILEY BEGGIN
• JOHN SANTUCCI

May 27, 2017, 4:58 PM ET

Evan Vucci/AP

WATCH New questions arise about Jared Kushner as the Russia investigation continues

• Email

President Trump's son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner talked with the Russian ambassador in December about establishing a back channel for communications, ABC News has learned from two sources.

The sources stress that the talk between Kushner and the Russian envoy about communications was focused on the U.S. response to the crisis in Syria and other policy-related matters.

The meeting, as ABC News has reported previously, took place at Trump Tower in New York and was also attended by Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, who later became President Trump's short-lived national security adviser.

The Washington Post was the first to report that Kushner wanted to set up a secret back channel to communicate with Russian officials during the transition period between the election and Trump's inauguration.

The Post report cited communications intercepted by U.S. intelligence officials as Russian Ambassador Sergei Kislyak reported to his superiors in Moscow.

Russia occasionally attempts to deliberately disclose misleading information when it believes it is being monitored, allowing for the possibility that the request from Kushner did not actually occur, the Post story noted.

Jared Kushner's contacts with Russia a focus in FBI's investigation

Scrutiny of Jared Kushner's Russia contacts brings the probe to Trump's inner circle

Former national security adviser Michael Flynn was also present at the meeting between Kushner and Kislyak at which the ambassador "reportedly was taken aback by the suggestion of allowing an American to use Russian communications gear at its embassy or consulate," the Post reported.

Reuters also reported Friday that Kushner had two phone calls with Kislyak before the election last year that he had not disclosed.

"Mr. Kushner participated in thousands of calls in this time period," Kushner's attorney, Jamie Gorelick, said in response. "He has no recollection of the calls as described. We have asked (Reuters) for the dates of such alleged calls so we may look into it and respond, but we have not received such information."

On CNN on Saturday, a former director of the National Security Agency and the CIA, Gen. Michael Hayden, called Kushner’s request for a communications back channel “off the map."

“What manner of ignorance, chaos, hubris, suspicion, contempt, would you have to have to think that doing this with the Russian ambassador was a good or appropriate idea?” Hayden said.

“This is off the map,” Hayden said. “I know of no other experience like this in our history, certainly within my life experience.”

This is not the first time reports of Kushner's relationships with Russians have surfaced: Kushner and Flynn met with Kislyak together in Trump Tower in December, and Kushner later met with Sergey Gorkov, who runs a bank that drew sanctions from the Obama administration after Russia annexed Crimea in 2014.

Kislyak has been at the center of contacts between Trump administration officials and Russia. The ambassador's conversations with Flynn prior to Trump's inauguration led to Flynn's firing in February after it was revealed that Flynn misled White House officials about the nature of their discussions.

Meetings between Kislyak and Attorney General Jeff Sessions resulted in Sessions' recusal from investigations into Russian interference in the presidential election and the ambassador was also present two weeks ago when President Trump revealed classified intelligence information during an Oval Office meeting.

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/repor...ry?id=47672306

Trump Returns to Crisis Over Kushner as White House Tries to Contain It