Kushner Decides To Save His Own Skin

Jared Kushner's statement and testimony today is the beginning of the dissolution of unity among Trump's top advisers when it comes to the Russian investigation. By denying he read his emails carefully enough to know the meeting with Don Jr. was specifically to get dirt on Hillary from the Russians and then claiming he got to the meeting late and missed the Russians pitch about information harming Hillary, Kushner clearly throws Don Jr. and perhaps even Paul Manafort under the bus, while absolving Kushner entirely. It does not explain, however, why Kushner would even attend the meeting if he did not know what it was going to be about and, having made the effort, why he simply left the meeting early when it seemed not worthwhile. Nor does he offer any information if he subsequently inquired as to why Don Jr. had invited him to a meeting that was a total waste of time.

As expected, Kushner's statements raise more questions about his own actions and that of the Trump campaign. He takes credit for Trump's foreign policy speech at the Mayflower Hotel but claims he was totally uninvolved in putting together the guest list which included putting Russian Ambassador Kislyak in the front row. In addition, Kushner's explanation for the December meeting with Flynn and Kislyak where Kushner proposed using secure Russian communications in order to coordinate actions in Syria is barely credible. Kushner admits that he "asked if they [the Russians] had an existing communications channel at his embassy we could use where they would be comfortable transmitting the information they wanted to relay to General Flynn." Two sentences later, however, Kushner states "I did not suggest a 'secret back channel.' I did not suggest an on-going secret form of communication for then or for when the administration took office." It is pretty hard to reconcile those statements.

Moreover, nothing that Kushner said today rules out the fact that the Trump campaign colluded or tried to collude with the Russians. He has only tried to absolve himself from that claim while stating that he has no knowledge of any campaign member who might have.