Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner behind Flynn’s Russia outreach

Mangalore Today News Network

New Delhi, Dec 02, 2017 : President Donald Trumps’s son-in-law and adviser Jared Kushner was the “very senior” transition team official who directed former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn to contact Russians last December in relation to a UN Security Council vote on Israeli settlements, according to US media reports.

 

Flynn, who pleaded guilty Friday to lying to FBI about his conversations with the then Russian ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak, has told investigators he was directed by a “very senior official” of the Trump transition team to contact Russians and officials other countries to stop or delay the vote.

The former NSA, who is cooperating with the investigation in a plea deal, also mentioned a “senior official” at Mar-a-Lago, the President’s Florida resort, whom he had consulted on the the other conversation he had with Kislyak, which was about sanctions imposed by President Barack Obama in retaliation for Russian meddling in the presidential election.

The identity of the “senior official” remains unclear with some indicating it was K T McFarland, former deputy national security adviser. But multiple news organizations were reporting Friday that the “very senior official” could have been President Trump’s son-in-law.


“On or about December 22, 2016, a very senior member of the Presidential Transition team directed Flynn to contact officials from foreign governments, including Russia, to learn where each government stood on the resolution and to influence those governments to delay the vote or defeat the resolution,” prosecutors said in a court document.

Flynn spoke to the Russian ambassador the same day and informed him of incoming administration’s opposition to the resolution, taking a position contrary to that of the then administration of President Obama, and “requested Russia vote against or delay the resolution”.

Flynn and Kislyak spoke again the next day, December 23, and this time the Russian ambassador told him if the resolution came for a vote, Russia will not oppose it.

Kushner has close ties to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who reportedly had reached out to the Trump campaign to help stop the vote on Israeli settlements in the West Bank or delay it as Obama was prepared to let it go through and not veto it, in a major break from past practice.

The UNSC resolution passed 14-0 in the 15-member UN security council on December 28 with the US abstaining.

Kushner, who is a real estate mogul from New York city like his father-in-law, is the administration’s lead official on West Asia peace process and in charge of an evolving, and shrinking, portfolio of responsibilities that include everything from west Asia to relations with neighbors Canada and Mexico and China.



courtesy:HT