Jared Speaks (Again)! President's Son-in-Law Releases Statement Ahead of Senate Intel Briefing

For just the second time since his father-in-law took office, the taciturn Jared Kushner, who’s served in a variety of ways as a close adviser to President Trump, made a public statement, this one a top-to-bottom denial of all media narratives surrounding the president’s inner circle and its ties to the Russian government.

“I did not collude, nor know of anyone else in the campaign who colluded, with any foreign government,” reads a section of Kushner’s statement. “I had no improper contacts. I have not relied on Russian funds to finance my business activities in the private sector. I have tried to be fully transparent with regard to the filing of my SF-86 form [security clearance], above and beyond what is required. Hopefully, this puts these matters to rest.”

Today, Kushner is meeting with Senate Intelligence Committee officials behind closed doors, the first of several  sessions committees are holding with Trump associates that will also include Donald Trump Jr. and Paul Manafort.

“With respect to my contacts with Russia or Russian representatives during the campaign, there were hardly any,” Kushner said of contacts he had with Russians during the presidential campaign and transition. He brought up the Mayflower Hotel in Washington in April 2016, when Donald Trump delivered a speech on foreign policy. There, Kushner was introduced to four ambassadors, including then-Russian ambassador to the U.S. Sergey Kislyak, in an exchange he described as fairly trivial.

“With all the ambassadors, including Mr. Kislyak, we shook hands, exchanged brief pleasantries and I thanked them for attending the event and said I hoped they would like candidate Trump’s speech and his ideas for a fresh approach to America’s foreign policy,” Kushner wrote. “The ambassadors also expressed interest in creating a positive relationship should we win the election. Each exchange lasted less than a minute; some gave me their business cards and invited me to lunch at their embassies. I never took them up on any of these invitations and that was the extent of the interactions.”

As for the meeting between Donald Trump, Jr. and Natalia Veselnitskaya, Kushner says in his statement that Trump Jr. invited him to the meeting.

You can read the full statement here.