Presidential son-in-law and White House adviser Jared Kushner has recently supplied special counsel Robert Mueller with documents his investigators seek in their probe of Russian election meddling.
According to reports, Mr. Muller’s investigators have begun interviewing witnesses about Mr. Kushner’s role in last May’s firing of FBI Director James B. Comey, which rocked Washington.
Noting that special counsel investigators are now reaching Mr. Trump’s inner circle, CNN reported that sources familiar with the probe say Mr. Mueller is interested in possible obstruction of justice issues regarding the Comey’s firing.
White House insiders debate how much Mr. Kushner influenced Mr. Trump’s decision to fire Mr. Comey after his controversial May congressional testimony.
On Capitol Hill in July, Mr. Kushner, who is Ivanka Trump’s husband, testified for two days behind closed doors to the House and Senate Intelligence committees’ Russia probes.
He also issued a detailed 11-page statement written to debunk many of the most stinging accusations that have defined the Trump-Russia saga.
“Let me be very clear: I did not collude with Russia, nor do I know of anyone else in the campaign who did so,” Mr. Kushner told reporters outside the White House at the time.
On Thursday, CNN reported that sources claimed Mr. Kushner himself was not a target of the special counsel investigation and that he furnished the probe with documents similar to those he provided congressional investigators last summer.
In addition to inquiring about the Comey firing, Mr. Mueller is also reportedly interested in Mr. Kushner’s role in crafting a statement about a July 2016 meeting in Trump Tower that he, Donald Trump Jr., and former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort attended with a Russian lawyer.
The meeting was held because Mr. Trump Jr. had been told the Kremlin sought to provide the Trump campaign damaging information about Democratic rival Hillary Clinton.
Mr. Kushner has been under investigation other reasons, including excluding meetings with foreign officials from his security clearance application, which has since been revised.
Lawyers for Mr. Kushner, White House officials and a special counsel spokesman, all declined to comment on CNN’s report.
Earlier this week Mr. Mueller’s probe was the center of attention when it charged Mr. Manafort and his longtime business partner Rick Gates — with conspiracy and money laundering. Both men pleaded not guilty.
After Mr. Mueller’s special counsel team announced the Manafort and Gates indictments, they unsealed a guilty plea by former Trump campaign adviser George Papadopoulos for making a false statement to the FBI about Russian contacts.
• Dan Boylan can be reached at dboylan@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.