Senior White House adviser Jared Kushner denied he colluded with Russia in the course of President Trump's White House bid, declaring in a statement ahead of interviews with congressional committees on Monday that he has "nothing to hide."
The 11-page statement, released hours before Kushner's closed-door appearance before the Senate Intelligence Committee, details four contacts with Russians during Trump's campaign and transition. It aims to explain inconsistencies and omissions in a security clearance form that have invited public scrutiny.
"I did not collude, nor know of anyone else in the campaign who colluded, with any foreign government," Kushner said in the prepared remarks. He also insisted that none of the contacts, which include meetings at Trump Tower with the Russian ambassador and a Russian lawyer, were improper.
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The document provides for the first time Kushner's own recollection of a meeting at Trump Tower with the Russian ambassador to the U.S. to talk about secure lines of communications and, months earlier, of a gathering with a Russian lawyer who was said to have damaging information to provide about Hillary Clinton.
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 congressional investigators as they probe Russian meddling in the 2016 election and possible links to the Trump campaign. He is to meet with staff on the Senate Intelligence Committee Monday and lawmakers on the House Intelligence Committee Tuesday.
Kushner's appearances have been highly anticipated, in part because of a series of headlines in recent months about his interactions with Russians and because the reticent Kushner hadn't personally responded to questions about an incomplete security clearance form and his conversations with foreigners.
"I have shown today that I am willing to do so and will continue to cooperate as I have nothing to hide," his statement said.
In the document, Kushner calls the June 2016 meeting at Trump Tower with Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya such a "waste of time" that he asked his assistant to call him out of the gathering.
Emails released this month show that the president's son, Donald Trump Jr., accepted the meeting with the idea that he would receive information as part of a Russian government effort to help Trump's campaign. But Kushner says he hadn't seen those emails until his lawyers recently showed them to him.
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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 denied reports he discussed setting up a "secret back-channel" with the Russian ambassador to the U.S. But he did detail a conversation with the Russian ambassador, Sergey Kislyak, in December at Trump Tower in which retired U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, then-incoming national security adviser, also attended.
During the meeting, Kushner said he and Kislyak talked about establishing a secure line for the countries to communicate about policy in Syria.
Kushner said that when Kislyak asked if there was a secure way 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 to convey the information to Flynn.
"The Ambassador said that would not be possible and so we all agreed that we would receive this information after the Inauguration. Nothing else occurred," the statement said.
Kushner said he never proposed an ongoing secret form of communication.
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Flynn attorney Robert Kelner declined comment when asked about Kushner's characterization of the meeting. Kushner also said he met with a Russian banker, Sergey Gorkov, at the request of Kislyak but that no specific policies were discussed.
Kushner also explained that his application form for a security clearance form 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. But 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, though the GOP chairman of the committee, Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley, has said they will eventually testify in public.