Jared Kushner's Russia meeting statement leaves Donald Trump Jr badly exposed

Presidential son-in-law Jared Kushner is set to testify before the Senate Intelligence Committee this morning, and what is striking about his extensive opening statement is the degree to which it seeks to insulate Kushner himself from any culpability or responsibility for the problematic known facts about the Russia affair - particularly the known facts that concern Donald Trump Jr.

Kushner's statement takes exceptional care to separate him, with scalpel-like precision, from the now-notorious meeting that Trump Jr arranged with a Russian lawyer - a meeting that Trump Jr had been informed would furnish the Trump campaign with information about Hillary Clinton supplied by the Russian government. Here is what Kushner's statement says about the meeting:

“In June 2016, my brother-in-law, Donald Trump Jr asked if I was free to stop by a meeting on 9 June at 3pm. The campaign was headquartered in the same building as his office in Trump Tower, and it was common for each of us to swing by the other's meetings when requested. He eventually sent me his own email changing the time of the meeting to 4pm. That email was on top of a long back and forth that I did not read at the time. As I did with most emails when I was working remotely, I quickly reviewed on my iPhone the relevant message that the meeting would occur at 4pm at his office. Documents confirm my memory that this was calendared as ”Meeting: Don Jr | Jared Kushner.“ No one else was mentioned.

“I arrived at the meeting a little late. When I got there, the person who has since been identified as a Russian attorney was talking about the issue of a ban on US. adoptions of Russian children. I had no idea why that topic was being raised and quickly determined that my time was not well-spent at this meeting. Reviewing emails recently confirmed my memory that the meeting was a waste of our time and that, in looking for a polite way to leave and get back to my work, I actually emailed an assistant from the meeting after I had been there for ten or so minutes and wrote ”Can u pls call me on my cell? Need excuse to get out of meeting.“

“I had not met the attorney before the meeting nor spoken with her since. I thought nothing more of this short meeting until it came to my attention recently. I did not read or recall this email exchange before it was shown to me by my lawyers when reviewing documents for submission to the committees. 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. Finally, after seeing the email, I disclosed this meeting prior to it being reported in the press on a supplement to my security clearance form, even if that was not required as meeting the definitions of the form.”

It's not entirely clear that the “long back and forth” that Kushner claims he “did not read at the time” is the email chain that Trump Jr released, under duress, which demonstrated that the meeting was taken with the express purpose of getting information advertised as coming from the Russian government. But it seems clear that this is what he is referring to. Note that Kushner does not say one way or the other whether he had been sent this email chain before. What we do know, however, is that Kushner says he never read it. And if Kushner is to be believed, he agreed to, and showed up at, this meeting without having any idea why it was being held.

This, even though Trump Jr was quite excited about what this meeting might yield (“I love it,” Trump Jr exulted in the email chain), and even though Trump's then-campaign chair Paul Manafort was also present. This was a meeting attended by Trump's top brain trust, on the expectation that it would yield greatly damaging information about Trump's opponent, just as the campaign was shifting into general election mode - but Kushner was unaware of its purpose.

Also note the exceptional care that went into Kushner's characterisation of the meeting. He claims he arrived just late enough to miss the incriminating part of the meeting. Trump Jr. admitted in his second statement that the Russian lawyer brought up the campaign (after an initial statement claiming the meeting was just about Russian adoptions):

After pleasantries were exchanged, the woman stated that she had information that individuals connected to Russia were funding the Democratic National Committee and supporting Ms Clinton.

Kushner's statement does not deny outright either that the meeting did address the campaign or that any documents had been offered to the Trump camp, which the email chain appears to confirm. All it does is insulate Kushner from those facts.

It is certainly possible that Kushner's account is accurate. But these things are now investigable: Efforts can be made to determine whether Kushner had been told of, or discussed, the purpose of the meeting beforehand, and to determine whether he arrived just late enough to miss the part of the meeting that concerned the campaign.

But whatever the truth turns out to be on those fronts, what Kushner's statement does not do is contest any of the known facts about that meeting - known facts that are deeply problematic for Trump Jr. and even for Trump himself. The meeting, at a minimum, shows that Trump Jr. was eager to collude with the Russian government, which, he had been told, was trying to get his father elected president. Kushner's statement denies any collusion on his own part, and claims no awareness of any other collusion:

“I did not collude, nor know of anyone else in the campaign who colluded, with any foreign government.”

Of course, what Trump Jr's email chain showed is that the campaign jumped at the chance to collude, even if it ended up not happening at that meeting. Recall that Trump Jr's original statement covered up the real reason for the meeting, and that President Trump himself reportedly signed off on that initial false statement, which means the president actively participated in an effort to mislead the country about his own campaign's eagerness to collude with Russia to help him win. Kushner's statement offers nothing to challenge these underlying facts. It just separates him from them.

The Washington Post