Jared Kushner Lying About Trump-Russia Contacts

[wvit1001]

Hope Hicks Implicates Jared Kushner in Lying About Trump-Russia Contacts



Robert Mueller’s report reached an indisputable conclusion that Trump, his aides, and his family lied often and profoundly about their interactions with Russia during the 2016 election.

Hope Hicks, while refusing to answer scores of questions, made a little-noticed remark that suggested Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, had lied to Hicks to hide one of the most suspicious and problematic contacts between the Trump campaign and Russia. With her testimony, Hicks implicated Kushner in an attempted cover-up.

Mueller’s report said that investigators “established multiple links between Trump Campaign officials and individuals tied to the Russian government. Those links included Russian offers of assistance to the Campaign. In some instances, the Campaign was receptive to the offer, while in other instances the Campaign officials shied away.”

Hicks told Rep. Madeleine Dean (D-Pa.) that she was “very surprised” to learn there were more than 100 contacts between the Trump campaign and Russia. (The figure may be closer to 300.) Hicks asserted she had not knowingly lied when she issued that blanket denial right after the election. And she asserted that before she had responded to Ryabkov’s comment she had checked in with “senior officials” on the Trump campaign to determine what she should say.

“And who was it that told you there were no contacts?” Dean asked. Hicks replied, “I believe I spoke to several people. Jason Miller [a spokesperson for the Trump campaign], Jared Kushner.” She added, “I believe Jason Miller may have reached out to Kellyanne Conway and Steve Bannon.” In an interview with Mueller’s team, Hicks said that after making the “no communication” comment to the Associated Press, she spoke with Conway, Jason Miller, Stephen Miller, and, according to the report, “probably Kushner and Bannon” to ensure her statement was accurate, and that there had been no hesitation or pushback from any of them.

Kushner’s involvement in either a pre- or post-comment discussion is especially noteworthy. There is no question that he knew of significant contact between the Trump campaign and Russia, since he attended the private June 2016 meeting at Trump Tower where Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya was supposed to offer him, Donald Trump Jr., and campaign chair Paul Manafort dirt on Hillary Clinton as part of a secret Russian government plot to help Trump’s campaign. Shortly before this meeting, Kushner had received an email—with the subject heading “FW: Russia – Clinton – private and confidential”—that said: “This is obviously very high level and sensitive information but is part of Russia and its government’s support for Mr. Trump.” (News of this meeting would not appear publicly until the year after the election.)

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2019/06/hope-hicks-implicates-jared-kushner-in-lying-about-trump-russia-contacts/

[wvit1001]

Uh oh, Jared. Time to update that SF86 again.

[wvit1001]

Mueller pretty much says it in the report. The Obstruction was so thorough and severe that direct evidence of collusion was not obtainable. He makes it clear that innocence was not proven.

[wvit1001]

Mueller learned a few things:

trump's team all lied to his team and the FBI many, many times, about just about everything. So even getting a base-line "truth" was very hard/impossible.

They all deleted and encrypted as much of their communications as possible - so while Mueller may "know" something, he can't prove it. He was worried trump would directly interfere via pardon/firing him before the other aspects of the investigation were complete.

Finally, because they were all liars, he couldn't trust anything they said to him anyways and because of the encryption and political climate couldn't secure perjury.