Jared Kushner, Mike Flynn Met With Russian Ambassador During Transition- Says White House
President Donald Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, now a senior White House adviser, and his former national security adviser, Mike Flynn, met with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak at Trump Tower in December, White House Director of Strategic Communications Hope Hicks confirmed to ABC News.
Jared Kushner, Mike Flynn met with Russian ambassador during transition, White House says (ABC News)
The news of the meeting -- first reported by the New York Times -- comes on the heels of Attorney General Jeff Sessions'
admission that he also met with Kislyak twice during the campaign, but
failed to mention the encounters when questioned under oath during his
confirmation hearing.
It was not clear what was discussed during the meeting between Kushner, Flynn and Kislyak.
Sessions,
who was a frequent Trump surrogate, today promised to recuse himself
from any probes related to the campaign's alleged contacts with the
Russians. But he denied having meetings "with Russian operatives or
Russian intermediaries about the Trump campaign."
Flynn's
contacts with the Russian ambassador during the same period also
received intense scrutiny. The former Army lieutenant general was forced
to resign after news broke that he had misled Vice President Mike Pence
about the nature of his conversations with Kislyak.
Flynn and the ambassador exchanged text messages on Christmas
and spoke by phone on Dec. 29 -- the day the Obama administration
imposed sanctions on Russia for its interference in the 2016 election.
Flynn discussed the sanctions with the ambassador on that call.
The FBI,
as well as several congressional committees, are investigating alleged
contacts between Trump associates and Russian intelligence operatives
during the presidential campaign.
"Look,
how many times do I have to answer this question? Russia is a ruse,"
Trump said at a press conference last month. He has also called the
allegations about Russia "fake news."
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