Trump braces to defend top aide
Donald Trump, just back from his first international trip as US president, geared up to combat concerns on Sunday over aides’ ties to Russia including explosive reports that his son-in-law had sought a secret communications line with Moscow.
Donald Trump, just back from his first international trip as US president, geared up to combat concerns on Sunday over aides’ ties to Russia including explosive reports that his son-in-law sought a secret communications line with Moscow.
The latest furore was stirred up after The Washington Post reported late on Friday that Jared Kushner — arguably Trump’s closest White House aide and husband to the president’s eldest daughter Ivanka — made before his inauguration proposal to the Russian ambassador to set up a secret, bug-proof link with the Kremlin.
Kushner even suggested using Russian diplomatic facilities in the US to protect such a channel from monitoring, The Post said.
If confirmed, the report would raise new questions about the Trump team’s relationship with the Russians, who US intelligence agencies say tried to sway the November election in Trump’s favour.
National security adviser HR McMaster refused to talk about the allegations. But he said that in general, “We have backchannel communication with a number of countries. What that allows you to do is communicate in a discreet manner. I would not be concerned about it.”
But a former head of the US National Security Agency condemned Kushner’s alleged effort to set up a secret communications line, saying that if it was true, it would reveal a dangerous degree of ignorance or naivete.
“What manner of ignorance, chaos, hubris, suspicion, contempt would you have to have to think that doing this with the Russian ambassador was a good or appropriate idea?” Michael Hayden said on CNN.
The Post and other media have been careful to note that their sources did not say Kushner was a “target” of the investigation, nor that he was accused of any wrongdoing.
But there have been a number of contacts — during the 2016 presidential campaign against Democrat Hillary Clinton and afterwards — between other top Trump aides and Russian officials.