FBI Investigation Focusing On Kushner’s Meeting With Russian Banker
In the ever growing investigation into the Trump campaign’s collusion with Russia, the FBI is increasingly focusing on Jared Kushner’s meeting with Russian banker Sergey Gorkov in December 2016.
Gorkov is a close ally of Vladimir Putin and is the head of the Russian state-run bank Vnesheconombank.
According to the New York Times, Kushner is “now being scrutinized by the F.B.I. as part of its investigation into alleged Russian attempts to disrupt last year’s presidential campaign, and whether any of Mr. Trump’s advisers assisted in such efforts.”
It was revealed on Friday that Kushner met with the Russian ambassador in December and requested setting up a secret backchannel line of communication using Russian facilities in order to evade U.S. intelligence.
Gorkov’s bank, according to the New York Times, is “deeply intertwined with Russian intelligence, and remains under sanction by the United States.”
Here is a key segment from the New York Times report: “Federal and congressional investigators are now examining what exactly Mr. Kushner and the Russian banker, Sergey N. Gorkov, wanted from each other. The banker is a close associate of Mr. Putin, but he has not been known to play a diplomatic role for the Russian leader. That has raised questions about why he was meeting with Mr. Kushner at a crucial moment in the presidential transition, according to current and former officials familiar with the investigations.”
The meeting between Kushner and Gorkov was facilitated by Russian Ambassador Kislyak.
The New York Times also reports that “During the Trump administration’s first week, administration officials said they were considering an executive order to unilaterally lift the sanctions, which bar Americans from providing financing to and could limit borrowing from Mr. Gorkov’s bank, Vnesheconombank. Removing the sanctions would have greatly expanded the bank’s ability to do business in the United States.”
The investigation has increasingly focused on financial ties between Trump team and Russia and Kushner’s meeting with the Russian banker is considered to be a key to understanding the extent of collusion.
Vnesheconombank has been used to plant Russian spies in the United States and “has long been intertwined with Mr. Putin’s inner circle: It has been used by the Russian government to bail out oligarchs close to Mr. Putin, and has helped fund the Russian president’s pet projects, such as the Winter Olympics in Sochi in 2014.”
