Kushner Lawyer: Senate Investigative Committee Playing ‘Gotcha Game’

Jared Kushner Image by Getty Images

By Josh Nathan-Kazis November 20, 2017

Amid new requests from the Senate Judiciary Committee for information from Jared Kushner on Russian interference in the 2016 election, Kushern’s lawyer is slapping back.

“If you look at the content of these emails, he’s the hero,” Kushner lawyer Abbe Lowell told CNN. “He’s the one who’s saying there shouldn’t be any contact with foreign officials or foreign entities. That’s what the Senate Judiciary Committee should pay attention to and not create some sort of partisan gotcha game.”

In a letter to Kushner last week, the Senate committee asked about documents relating to a “Russian backdoor overture,” among other things.

That overture was the subject of a New York Times story last week revealing that a top Russian official had attempted to set up a meeting between Trump and Putin in an email thread that reached Kushner.

Kushner reportedly turned down the attempt.

“Pass on this,” Kushner wrote, according to the Times report. “Most likely these people then go back home and claim they have special access to gain importance for themselves. Be careful.”

Contact Josh Nathan-Kazis at [email protected] or on Twitter, @joshnathankazis.

Josh Nathan-Kazis is a staff writer for the Forward. He covers charities and politics, and writes investigations and longform.

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