Day 128: Jared Kushner’s Idiotic, Dangerous and Felonious Plans with Russia

In a bombshell story, The Washington Post reported that Donald Trump’s’ son-in-law and trusted adviser Jared Kushner discussed creating a back-channel, secret communication line between the Trump transition team and Russia. Kushner allegedly spoke to and/or met with Russian ambassador Sergei Kislyak.

Reuters added on the biggest piece of news:

FBI investigators are examining whether Russians suggested to Kushner or other Trump aides that relaxing economic sanctions would allow Russian banks to offer financing to people with ties to Trump, said the current U.S. law enforcement official.

This supplements last month’s reporting by The New York Times who reported that Kushner did not disclose meeting with Kislyak or the head of a Russian state-owned bank when applying for top-secret security clearance. The meeting with the banker — a trained intelligence officer appointed directly by Russian President Vladimir Putin — was arranged by Kislyak. The FBI was closely scrutinizing those omissions and — based on the Post’s and Reuters’ reports yesterday — what those meetings entailed.

(In unrelated news, Kusher was one of the key Trump figures urging Trump to fire former FBI director James Comey and pushing back on the appointing of a special prosecutor to oversee the Trump-Russia investigation.)

Scott Olson, a recently retired FBI agent who ran counterintelligence operations and spent more than 30 years at the bureau, was interviewed by Business Insider. He declared Kushner’s activities extraordinarily abnormal, dangerous and stupid:

“First, he is not seeking a back-channel for a low-level staff exchange. He wants high-level direct-contact communication. This is extremely dangerous because it results in verbal (and therefore undocumented and unwitnessed) agreements, which are binding on governments. Free governments do not work this way. They can’t. If they do, they are no longer free.”

“Second, he asked to use a foreign government’s communication facilities. This is way beyond a private server. This is doing US government diplomatic business over a foreign government’s communication system. It’s not an off-the-record conversation. It’s a conversation recorded by the opposing party. This shows a staggering lack of understanding of the US and its place in the world. Actually, it shows a staggering lack of common sense. When he negotiates a business deal does he use the other guy’s notes?”

Kushner joins Attorney General Jeff Sessions and disgraced former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn in conveniently forgetting about meeting and communicating with Russian officials.

Kushner’s failure to disclose the meeting on Form: SF86 is a felony as is clearly stated on the form itself. The substance of the meeting, however, is potentially treasonous.

Setting up back-channel communications to aid Russia and in return line one’s own pockets is traitorous in every sense of the word. If those allegations are true, Kushner should spend the rest of his life in an orange jumpsuit in a federal prison. (Of course, Trump would pardon him, but that really is besides the point at the moment.)

Trump continues to plead ignorance and innocence about all things Russia. Flynn, Sessions and Kushner make up three of the most important members of his team. All three had prominent, undisclosed communications with Russia. Within four months: Flynn is gone; Sessions had to recuse himself from the Russia investigation; Kushner is in the FBI crosshairs.

128 days in, 1334 to go

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