REUTERS/Carlos Barria
White House Senior Advisor Jared Kushner attends a swearing in ceremony for U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman at the Executive office in Washington, U.S., March 29, 2017.
The FBI says it is taking a closer look at Jared Kushner in its investigation of alleged ties between President Donald Trump's associates and Russian officials during the 2016 election.Kushner is Trump's son-in-law and a senior adviser in the White House. Federal investigators say they believe Kushner may have "significant information" related to their ongoing inquiry, NBC News reported on Thursday.
It was reported last week that a White House staffer close to Trump had caught the attention of investigators.
The Washington Post said Thursday that authorities were looking into a "series of meetings" held by Kushner and Russian operatives in December. Kushner's meetings with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak and a banker from Moscow gave investigators pause due to the "extent and nature of his interactions" with the Kremlin, The Post reported, citing people familiar with the investigation.
Both The Post and NBC News reported that Kushner has not been accused of any wrongdoing.
"Mr. Kushner previously volunteered to share with Congress what he knows about these meetings. He will do the same if he is contacted in connection with any other inquiry," Jamie Gorelick, one of his attorneys, said in a statement.
The meeting among Kushner, the Russian ambassador, and the banker from Moscow caught the eye of the Senate Intelligence Committee in March. Kislyak reportedly orchestrated the meeting between Kushner and Vnesheconombank CEO Sergey N. Gorkov, who was appointed by Russian President Vladimir Putin in January 2016 as part of a restructuring of the bank's management team, Bloomberg reported last year.
The new development suggests that the FBI's Russia investigation reaches among the highest levels of the White House. Former Trump associates have also been named in the ongoing probe - including, most recently, former national security adviser Michael Flynn, whose businesses were subpoenaed by the Senate Intelligence Committee this week. Flynn declined to comply with a subpoena for documents related to its investigation, invoking his Fifth Amendment rights in response.
Despite the FBI's new focus on Kushner, he remains active in the Trump administration, having just returned from the president's first foreign trip as a head of state this week.
Natasha Bertrand contributed to this report.