Russian Banker That Kushner Met With Considered ‘Putin Crony’ By U.S. Intel
New details are emerging about Jared Kushner’s repeated communications with Russia officials during the 2016 campaign and transition.
On Friday, two bombshell stories, by the Washinton Post and Reuters respectively, were published, revealing that Jared Kushner spoke to the Russian ambassador during a secret meeting at Trump Tower in December. They allegedly discussed setting up a secret backchannel communications line between the Trump team and Putin.
The aim of the secret communications line was to evade the scrutiny of U.S. intelligence and diplomats. The Russian ambassador was reportedly surprised by the fact that Kushner offered to use Russia’s communications facilities.
And now NBC News is reporting that in a separate December meeting, Kushner met with Sergey Gorkov, the head of a Russian state-run bank. U.S. officials say Gorkov often performed sensitive financial operations for Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The Russian banker is a graduate from Russia’s spy school, the FSB Academy, which is described as a “finishing school” for Russian spies.
Gorkov is considered by United State intelligence officials to be a “Putin crony,” according to the NBC News report.
Putin appointed Gorkov to run VneshEconomBank (VEB), which is the target of sanctions from the United States. According to NBC News, “The Russian state national development bank, VEB has played a critical role in blunting the impact of U.S. sanctions against Russia by finding other sources of foreign capital.”
The news of Kushner’s meetings with both the Russian ambassador and the Russian banker with significant connections to Russia’s spy community comes just days after reports that the FBI’s investigation has increasingly focused on Kushner.
