Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley and ranking member Dianne Feinstein said Thursday that Jared Kusnher was not forthcoming to the committee about his communications with WikiLeaks and Russia.
According to Grassley, an Iowa Republican, and Feinstein, a California Democrat, sent a letter to Kushner’s attorney saying President Trump’s son-in-law and adviser received and forwarded emails about WikiLeaks during the presidential campaign in 2016, but Kushner has kept those documents from their committee’s investigators.
Among the missing documents “that are known to exist,” the senators wrote, are a September 2016 email to Kushner “concerning WikiLeaks, which Mr. Kushner then forwarded to another campaign official.”
Kushner has not provided the Senate Judiciary Committee with those communications, as well as other documents about a “Russian backdoor overture and dinner invite,” the two senators told lawyer Abbe Lowell.
Grassley and Feinstein say they know the documents exist because other witnesses in their committee’s probe have already turned them over.
This week, Donald Trump Jr. revealed he had direct communication with WikiLeaks via private Twitter messages during the 2016 presidential campaign.
Kushner failed to turn over known documents that include communications with Sergei Millian, a U.S.-Russian businessman named in the infamous and uncorroborated Steele Dossier, that were copied to him.
“You also have not produced any phone records that we presume exist and would relate to Mr. Kushner’s communications,” Grassley and Feinstein wrote.
Also missing from documents turned over to the committee leaders include “transcripts from other committee interviews, additional documents from previous requests, communications with [former national security adviser] Michael Flynn and documents related to his security clearance.”
Grassley and Feinstein also asked that their committee have access to transcribed interviews Kushner has given to the Senate and House Intelligence committees.
“If you are able to secure for the committee copies of the transcripts from Mr. Kushner’s other interviews, then please provide them and we will consider whether the transcript satisfies the needs of our investigation,” the letter said.
Documents on Kushner’s security clearance application have yet to be turned over as well, and the senators asked that form and other requested documents be provided no later than Nov. 27.
“We appreciate your voluntary cooperation with the Committee’s investigation, but the production appears to have been incomplete,” the letter said. “In addition, you asked for clarification on the scope of the request. Therefore, we write today to clarify the scope and reiterate our requests for documents.”
Lowell, Kushner’s attorney, said they have “been responsive to all requests.”
“We provided the Judiciary Committee with all relevant documents that had to do with Mr. Kushner’s calls, contacts or meetings with the Russians during the campaign and transition, which was the request,” Lowell said in a statement following the release of the Grassley-Feinstein letter.
Lowell added that they are open to responding to additional requests and will be working with White House Counsel for any post-inauguration documents.
