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SENIOR WHITE HOUSE adviser Jared Kushner has denied that US President Donald Trump’s campaign colluded with Russia.
In a statement released ahead of congressional interviews, he said he has “nothing to hide”.
The 11-page statement given to the Associated Press today details four contacts with Russians during Trump’s campaign and transition. Kushner plans to deliver the statement during closed-door meetings with investigators on Senate and House committees this week.
“I did not collude, nor know of anyone else in the campaign who colluded, with any foreign government,” Kushner said in the statement. He also insists that none of the contact was improper and denies that Russians finance any of his businesses in the private sector.
In speaking to Congress, Kushner — as both the president’s son-in-law and a trusted senior adviser during the campaign and inside the White House — becomes the first member of the president’s inner circle to face questions from government officials as they probe Russian meddling in the 2016 election and possible links to the Trump campaign.
Kushner is to meet with staff on the Senate intelligence committee today and lawmakers on the House intelligence committee tomorrow.
His appearance has been highly anticipated, in part because of a series of headlines in recent months about his interactions with Russians. The reticent Kushner had until today not personally responded to questions about an incomplete security clearance form and his conversations with foreigners.
“I am not a person who has sought the spotlight,” he said in his statement.
In it, he detailed a June 2016 meeting with a Russian-American lawyer and says it was such a “waste of time” that he asked his assistant to call him out of the gathering.
Donald Trump Jr
Emails released this month show that the president’s son, Donald Trump Jr, accepted the meeting at Trump Tower with the idea that he would receive damaging information about Hillary Clinton. But Kushner says he hadn’t seen those emails until recently shown them by his lawyers.
Kushner said in his statement that Trump Jr invited him to the meeting. He says he arrived late and when he heard the lawyer discussing the issue of adoptions, he texted his assistant to call him out.
“No part of the meeting I attended included anything about the campaign, there was no follow up to the meeting that I am aware of, I do not recall how many people were there (or their names), and I have no knowledge of any documents being offered or accepted,” Kushner’s statement says.
Kushner also denies reports he discussed setting up a secret back-channel with the Russian ambassador to the US. He said he did speak with the Russian ambassador, Sergey Kislyak, in December at Trump Tower. But he says that conversation was about policy in Syria.
Kushner says that when Kislyak asked if there was a secure line for him to provide information on Syria from what Kislyak called his “generals”, Kushner asked if there was an existing communications channel at the embassy that could be used. Kushner says he never proposed an ongoing secret form of communication.
He also says he met with a Russian banker, Sergey Gorkov, at the request of Kislyak. But he says no specific policies were discussed.
Kushner also explained that his application form for security clearance was submitted prematurely due to a miscommunication with his assistant, who had erroneously believed the document was complete.
He said he mistakenly omitted all of his foreign contacts, not just his meetings with Russians, and has worked in the last six months with the FBI to correct the record.
Trump Jr and Trump’s former campaign manager Paul Manafort, who was also at the June 2016 meeting, were scheduled to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee this week.
However, on Friday their attorneys said they remained in negotiations with that panel. The two men are now in discussions to be privately interviewed by staff or lawmakers. The GOP chairman of the committee, Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley, has said they will eventually testify in public.
The president took to Twitter over the weekend to defend himself and repeat his criticism of the investigations. Yesterday Trump tweeted: “As the phony Russian Witch Hunt continues, two groups are laughing at this excuse for a lost election taking hold, Democrats and Russians!”
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Luckily I doubt Zika could survive in our modest damp wind swept country,
Horrible situation for those in the infected areas,
Hopefully a solution can be found.
Are we at DEFCON 2 yet
Really? Do a google search on the WHO statements re Zika.
Its transmitted by the Aedes mosquitoes that have been found in parts of the uk over the past number of years.
In addition they are concerned that a batch of genetically modified mosquitoes that were released to.combat the dengue virus last year are responsible for this outbreak. The scientists working on project advised against the release as upto 4% of mosquito offspring were surviving with the new gene that was supposed to kill them. Despite their warnings the release was given the go ahead.
The epicentre is the same point as the release.
Zika does not usually cause microcephaly either and this is what is concerning them.
Nobody has a clue in other words.
In mid-2012, British biotech company Oxitec released a strain of genetically modified mosquitoes in northeastern Brazil. The Zika outbreak epicenter is in the same area where the GM mosquitoes were released
I Think i read that those GM Mosquitos were released to combat Dengue fever, apparently they were also released in Florida
http://e360.yale.edu/feature/genetically_modified_mosquito_sparks_a_controversy_in_florida/2883/
So the mosquitoes, the carriers, have been genetically modified. I wonder if we will ever be told how much experimentation and modification, genetic or otherwise, has been carried out on the virus itself.
By a company funded by the Bill Gates Foundation….that alone should sound the alarm bells.
After swine flu scaremongering, they can take a run and jump with their warnings
This one sounds deadlier though. Zika? Could be Muslim.
Another “Gift” to the world from America..
2016 Fearmongering Vaccine campaign sets off in full swing compliments of the Mainstream Media.
Yes that’s right Frank what the hell do the WHO know anyway they’re just trying to scare us with lies right? Oh right yeah no.
@ Daniel. He’s talking about disproportionate it is. I can promise you 100% for example that you or noone you know will be affected by this virus… It sensationalism.
WHO Founded on 7 April 1948 add up the date…. 7+4+1+9+4+8 = 33
Who emblem also contains 33 segments…
Why is a serpent that would represent Satan the Devil incorporated into the Who Logo?
Why has the Who Logo got two 13 leaf olive branches on an Israeli Flag Blue back drop?
Lucifer is the 13th unseen member of a twelve witch coven.
How many albums did THE WHO release?
What is your favourite song by the WHO?
People seem to be under the assumption that WHO is a benign charity with no business influence.
So who declared it???
Maybe if they stop funding mad scientists to create these bloody type of things,the world would be a better place.
Dr WHO is great
Old show was good new one is terrible
Old show was terrible, new one is good.
So this means the West sees this as a threat and is now bothered to do something about it.
And? Do you think every problem in the world is the responsibility of the west to fix? This has been a peculiarly Brazilian problem up to now, they’re hardly an impoverished nation, why couldn’t they deal with it? The failures of Brazil could become the problems of the west, yet you think it is the west who should feel guilty.
It’s about to spread into the US, so it’s a global emergency now.
Microencaphaly afflicts some Irish politicians who have been over exposed to the stagnant and disease laden Irish Water.
It was isis One of the mosquitoes drop his passport
The Wildly Hysterical Organisation is at it again…
have your say