Jared Kushner Wanted Secret Channel To Moscow

[AGBF]

Russian ambassador told Moscow that Kushner wanted secret communications channel with Kremlin

When I heard this story on the radio the person announcing it said that there is thinking outside the box and thinking outside the earth. Apparently Jared Kushner's idea was so wild that it stunned even the veteran Russian ambassador.

"Ambassador Sergey Kislyak reported to his superiors in Moscow that Kushner, son-in-law and confidant to then-President-elect Trump, made the proposal during a meeting on Dec. 1 or 2 at Trump Tower, according to intercepts of Russian communications that were reviewed by U.S. officials. Kislyak said Kushner suggested using Russian diplomatic facilities in the United States for the communications."

Much as the Russians loved the idea of having the new Trump team falling all over themselves to curry favor (secretly) with them, they actually feared allowing the Americans access to their equipment! Apparently they even they thought the idea was crazy.

"The Washington Post"...https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/russian-ambassador-told-moscow-that-kushner-wanted-secret-communications-channel-with-kremlin/2017/05/26/520a14b4-422d-11e7-9869-bac8b446820a_story.html?hpid=hp_hp-top-table-high_kushner-705pm:homepage/story&utm_term=.f5d0f1f54005

 

[Karl_K]

Reagan had a secret back channel to Russia that cut out his staff and look at what good he did.
The "intelligence" community was having a fit about being cut out of the loop.
While Trump is no Reagan but if Reagan had listened to the bureaucrats and the press the world would be much worse off today.

 

[E B]

That's sort of an apples to tomatoes comparison, Karl. This situation is going to require the removal of partisan glasses, because we all need to recognize that this is smoke, not fog, and the presence of fire is dangerous for the country as a whole, not just 'the libs.'

 

[E B]

A good point made (first the snippet, then the tweet about said snippet):

 

[lovedogs]

Shoes are going to continue to drop for a while now. I am convinced the entire family is going down--they are all complicit. I can't wait to watch their demise, because he has done so much harm to our country in so little time.

 

[Calliecake]

We can only hope they go down quickly Loves Dogs.

 

[whitewave]

According to who?

Who is the source on this?

 

[Calliecake]

I think this is pretty much all over the media now Whitewave. I read it last night in the Daily Mail but didn't consider it a reliable source. Heard it this morning on our news radio station.

 

[whitewave]

I know. That is why I ask. No one ever says who the source is. Is it an actual named person? The russians? Trusted sources? Person close to the situation, etc.

Until they start saying who is giving the information, I consider it rumors. Perhaps with little substance too....

 

[AGBF]

I know. That is why I ask. No one ever says who the source is. Is it an actual named person? The russians? Trusted sources? Person close to the situation, etc.

Until they start saying who is giving the information, I consider it rumors. Perhaps with little substance too....

whitewave, I am not sure whom you are questioning, the reporters at "The Washington Post" who wrote the story or the intelligence service who was listening to Ambassador Kislyak's conversation with the Kremlin. I doubt very, very much that the US intelligence services are are about to give out the names of operatives who listened in on and translated the Russians' conversations. The US has already given up any advantage we might once have had if the Russians didn't know that we were listening to them (which they probably did). The reporters who wrote the story are no secret.

"The Washington Post"...https://www.washingtonpost.com/worl...ac8b446820a_story.html?utm_term=.260ae208c192

AGBF

 

[AGBF]

Some additional information, excerpted from a May 27, 2017 article in "Reuters".

"In March, the White House said that Kushner and Flynn had met Kislyak at Trump Tower in December to establish “a line of communication.” Kislyak also attended a Trump campaign speech in Washington in April 2016 that Kushner attended. The White House did not acknowledge any other contacts between Kushner and Russian officials.

BACK CHANNEL

Before the election, Kislyak’s undisclosed discussions with Kushner and Flynn focused on fighting terrorism and improving U.S.-Russian economic relations, six of the sources said. Former President Barack Obama imposed sanctions on Russia after it seized Crimea and started supporting separatists in eastern Ukraine in 2014.

After the Nov. 8 election, Kushner and Flynn also discussed with Kislyak the idea of creating a back channel between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin that could have bypassed diplomats and intelligence agencies, two of the sources said. Reuters was unable to determine how those discussions were conducted or exactly when they took place.

Reuters was first to report last week that a proposal for a back channel was discussed between Flynn and Kislyak as Trump prepared to take office. The Washington Post was first to report on Friday that Kushner participated in that conversation.

Separately, there were at least 18 undisclosed calls and emails between Trump associates and Kremlin-linked people in the seven months before the Nov. 8 presidential election, including six calls with Kislyak, sources told Reuters earlier this month. . Two people familiar with those 18 contacts said Flynn and Kushner were among the Trump associates who spoke to the ambassador by telephone. Reuters previously reported only Flynn’s involvement in those discussions.

Six of the sources said there were multiple contacts between Kushner and Kislyak but declined to give details beyond the two phone calls between April and November and the post-election conversation about setting up a back channel. It is also not clear whether Kushner engaged with Kislyak on his own or with other Trump aides.

HOW KUSHNER CAME UNDER SCRUTINY

FBI scrutiny of Kushner began when intelligence reports of Flynn’s contacts with Russians included mentions of U.S. citizens, whose names were redacted because of U.S. privacy laws. This prompted investigators to ask U.S. intelligence agencies to reveal the names of the Americans, the current U.S. law enforcement official said.

Kushner’s was one of the names that was revealed, the official said, prompting a closer look at the president’s son-in-law’s dealings with Kislyak and other Russians.

FBI investigators are examining whether Russians suggested to Kushner or other Trump aides that relaxing economic sanctions would allow Russian banks to offer financing to people with ties to Trump, said the current U.S. law enforcement official.

The head of Russian state-owned Vnesheconombank, Sergei Nikolaevich Gorkov, a trained intelligence officer whom Putin appointed, met Kushner at Trump Tower in December. The bank is under U.S. sanctions and was implicated in a 2015 espionage case in which one of its New York executives pleaded guilty to spying and was jailed.

The bank said in a statement in March that it had met with Kushner along with other representatives of U.S. banks and business as part of preparing a new corporate strategy.

Officials familiar with intelligence on contacts between the Russians and Trump advisers said that so far they have not seen evidence of any wrongdoing or collusion between the Trump camp and the Kremlin. Moreover, they said, nothing found so far indicates that Trump authorized, or was even aware of, the contacts.

There may not have been anything improper about the contacts, the current law enforcement official stressed.

Kushner offered in March to be interviewed by the Senate Intelligence Committee, which is also investigating Russia’s attempts to interfere in last year’s election.

The contacts between Trump campaign associates and Russian officials during the presidential campaign coincided with what U.S. intelligence agencies concluded was a Kremlin effort through computer hacking, fake news and propaganda to boost Trump’s chances of winning the White House and damage his Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton."

 

[MollyMalone]

I know. That is why I ask. No one ever says who the source is. Is it an actual named person? The russians? Trusted sources? Person close to the situation, etc.
Until they start saying who is giving the information, I consider it rumors. Perhaps with little substance too....

Here's the link to the full report from Reuters tonight from which AGBF quoted above.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-fbi-kushner-exclusive-idUSKBN18N018
I think his lawyer's statement (9th paragraph), made on behalf of her client, is "interesting":* *

"Mr Kushner participated in thousands of calls in this time period. He has no recollection of the calls as described. We have asked (Reuters) for the dates of such alleged calls so we may look into it and respond, but we have not received such information," she said.​

** Would that you could hear interesting delivered with the subtly damning inflection my former mother-in-law always gave it ; - )

 

[whitewave]

How can we not think this is yet another in a long line of horrible things supposedly done and yet nothing has happened to anyone? Are we to believe this one is different? Or a charge is coming soon? I won't hold my breath.

I'm getting sick of hearing all of this kind of stuff and then a few weeks later, nothing has happened and no one is talking about it any more.

 

[lovedogs]

But people are still talking about it. None of these things have been ignored, it's just that these things take time. I wish it would go faster, but trust the FBI to get things done right.

 

[MollyMalone]

How can we not think this is yet another in a long line of horrible things supposedly done and yet nothing has happened to anyone? Are we to believe this one is different? Or a charge is coming soon? I won't hold my breath.

I'm getting sick of hearing all of this kind of stuff and then a few weeks later, nothing has happened and no one is talking about it any more.

What would you expect to have happened at this juncture? Robert Mueller was appointed Special Counsel just 10 days ago. As a former career prosecutor, I can attest to the fact that even far more mundane investigations can take m-o-n-t-h-s.

Frankly, I'm fervently hoping that both houses of Congress stay out of it for the time being; devote their attention to the job we pay them for (which ain't playing sleuth), the work only they can do; and let Mr. Mueller conduct the investigation in the very professionally seasoned, very capable, very "straight arrow" manner for which he has gained so much respect.

Think it also would benefit us all, as a nation, to be spared the kind of posturing, the grandstanding, we've seen from Senators & Representatives -- on both sides of the aisle -- at Congressional hearings, e.g., James Comey's May 3rd appearance before the Senate Judiciary Committee.

 

[AnnaH]

Molly, agree with your last paragraph, particularly.

 

[Dancing Fire]

According to who?

Who is the source on this?

All the liberals medias.

 

[Dancing Fire]

We can only hope they go down quickly Loves Dogs.

and then I'll become the POTUS...

 

[Calliecake]

and then I'll become the POTUS...

Thank you for making me laugh Dancing Fire. With all that has happened this week it sure feels good to laugh!

 

[Dancing Fire]

Thank you for making me laugh Dancing Fire. With all that has happened this week it sure feels good to laugh!

I don't think any liberals will be laughing for the next 4 or maybe 8 yrs, so get over it!... The only reason we have Trump in office today b/c of the failed left wing Obama policies.

 

[Karl_K]

In spite of what may or may not have happened during the election the only way to settle the mess in Syria is for the US and Russia to work together.
There really is no other way for it to happen outside of ww3.
Some of the bureaucrats in the "intelligence" community and the liberal press are bound and determined that they not work together on it. Who can blame them for working to set up back channels.

 

[Karl_K]

btw back channels from the US are older than the US itself.
Benjamin Franklin was the most well known of the first back channels.

 

[MollyMalone]

In spite of what may or may not have happened during the election the only way to settle the mess in Syria is for the US and Russia to work together. * * *

Karl, I'm wondering what your particularized vision is of what it means "to settle the mess in Syria"?

 

[E B]

btw back channels from the US are older than the US itself.
Benjamin Franklin was the most well known of the first back channels.

It wasn't a standard back channel, though. It was an attempt to conceal discussion by using Russian equipment, and well into knowing they'd meddled in our election. This is really a "nothing to see" situation for you?

 

[Karl_K]

It wasn't a standard back channel, though. It was an attempt to conceal discussion by using Russian equipment, and well into knowing they'd meddled in our election. This is really a "nothing to see" situation for you?

I simply presented a logical reason for such a channel to be set up even with the other stuff going on what ever it was.
A back channel does not bug me at all. How it was used might or might not but there is no proof what so ever so far that it was misused or was even implemented.
Every day I see more and more reason to use one even using Russian equipment because the US intelligence bureaucrats prove more and more they can not be trusted.
The level of leaks or more properly treason in the intelligence ranks is disgusting.

Franklin's back channel was to hide the discussions with France from the British and British agents in America. Both France and Britain were interfering in politics at the time.

 

[Karl_K]

Karl, I'm wondering what your particularized vision is of what it means "to settle the mess in Syria"?

Peace, end to the killing on all sides.
Stability
Stem the flow of refugees over running the rest of Europe by them being safe in there homeland.
I don't know what all it would take, but it will take the US and Russia working together to get it there.

 

[E B]

I simply presented a logical reason for such a channel to be set up even with the other stuff going on what ever it was.
A back channel does not bug me at all. How it was used might or might not but there is no proof what so ever so far that it was misused or was even implemented.
Every day I see more and more reason to use one even using Russian equipment because the US intelligence bureaucrats prove more and more they can not be trusted.
The level of leaks or more properly treason in the intelligence ranks is disgusting.

This just seems to block out so much of what else is happening between Russia and the US, and puts a lot of undue blame on the IC for such a complicated relationship (while giving the WH the full benefit of the doubt, which they have yet to earn). Do you believe the Russians meddled in our- and other allies'- elections? I don't know whether I'm wandering into an Infowars argument here, so I'm trying to understand where you're coming from on an incredibly complex issue. John McCain just yesterday (?) said that he believes Putin is a bigger threat to us than ISIS is.

Concerning leaks and possible treason are a big concern from our own administration, too.

 

[katharath]

It's perfectly reasonable that KUSHNER, some real estate guy with zero experience politically, is behind opening up back channels to Russia?!? And people are just fine with it. Huh. I do look forward to his bringing peace to the Middle East and solving the opioid crisis as well, as promised by Trump; I'm sure his ability to sell a property will greatly aid his endeavors.

 

[Karl_K]

. Do you believe the Russians meddled in our- and other allies'- elections? John McCain just yesterday (?) said that he believes Putin is a bigger threat to us than ISIS is.

On some levels they likely did some meddling but to what extent is clear as mud.
What is clear that it didn't change the outcome of the election.
Hillary not getting out the vote is what set the election outcome.
I do not see how the blame can be placed anywhere but with Hillary and her campaign.

McCain has 0 credibility with me, He is a bitter old man who could not win.

As far as who is a bigger threat anyone who has been paying attention will know that China is the biggest threat facing US interests today.

 

[E B]

On some levels they likely did some meddling but to what extent is clear as mud.
What is clear that it didn't change the outcome of the election.
Hillary not getting out the vote is what set the election outcome.
I do not see how the blame can be placed anywhere but with Hillary and her campaign.

This is what mucks up the issue. The partisan divide- sure, maybe Russia did something, but it doesn't matter because they didn't tamper with the numbers and Donald Trump is the rightful president!11! Actually, plenty of blame can be placed with those who DID meddle in our election, hacked into the campaigns' emails and only released one side's. Those who pumped thousands and thousands of fake stories throughout the internet that old, scared, gullible people took as truth. Of course Hillary is to blame for part of it, but to suggest that what happened was something to shrug off is to wear the thickest kind of partisan glasses, and that hurts us too. As did a president who helped spread the nonsense.