Trump Son-in-Law Jared Kushner Met Chief of Sanctioned Russian Bank
President’s adviser agrees to meet Senate panel probing Moscow’s alleged election meddling
WASHINGTON—President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, met during the White House transition with the head of a state-run Russian bank that is on a U.S. sanctions list, White House officials said.
Mr. Kushner has been asked to discuss the contact, and a meeting during the same period with the Russian ambassador, with a Senate committee probing Russia’s alleged interference in the 2016 election, according to White House and congressional officials.
Mr. Kushner, who is married to Mr. Trump’s daughter Ivanka and holds the title of senior adviser to the president, has agreed to speak to the panel, the first White House official to do so.
White House officials said Mr. Kushner met in December with Russian Ambassador to the U.S. Sergei Kislyak and Michael Flynn, Mr. Trump’s first national security adviser, who resigned last month after it was disclosed he misled White House officials about his contacts with the Russian ambassador.
Mr. Kushner subsequently had an aide, Avraham Berkowitz, take another meeting requested by Mr. Kislyak, according to White House officials. During that meeting Mr. Kislyak sought to arrange a meeting between Mr. Kushner and Sergei Gorkov, the head of Vneshekonombank, or VEB, which later took place, the officials said.
The Russian development bank was slapped with sanctions in 2014 by the U.S. on a number of entities and individuals operating in Russia’s economy following Moscow’s annexation of Crimea. The Treasury Department sanctions ban specified financial contacts with the bank and others on the list.
VEB said its leadership met with representatives from top world financial institutions in Europe, Asia and the U.S. throughout 2016 while developing a new strategy for the bank. “The meetings took place in the format of a roadshow for Vneshekonombank’s 2021 strategy with representatives from major banks and business circles in the U.S., including the head of Kushner Companies, Jared Kushner,” the bank said.
A spokesman for the Russian Embassy in Washington didn’t respond to a request for comment.
Senate Select Committee on Intelligence Chairman Richard Burr (R., N.C.) and Vice Chairman Mark Warner (D., Va.) said they expected Mr. Kushner “to be able to provide answers to key questions that have arisen in our inquiry.” The committee leaders said the timing of the testimony had yet to be determined.
White House press secretary Sean Spicer said Mr. Kushner’s meetings were part of his role during the transition as the “primary point of contact with foreign government officials.” He said Mr. Kushner had volunteered to speak with the Senate committee.
Mr. Kushner on Monday was named to oversee the new White House Office of American Innovation, which is tasked with replicating private-sector efficiency inside the federal government.
The Senate and House intelligence committees are running separate but parallel investigations into the U.S. intelligence community’s assessment that Russia ran a campaign designed to help Mr. Trump win last year’s presidential election. The New York Times first reported that Mr. Kushner, a former newspaper publisher and real-estate developer, would meet the Senate panel.
The Russian campaign, according to U.S. intelligence officials, included cyberattacks on the email accounts of senior Democrats and a propaganda effort aimed at demonizing Mr. Trump’s opponent, Democrat Hillary Clinton. The Russian government denies the allegation. The White House said the Trump campaign didn’t collude with any alleged Russian meddling.
The congressional panels have sought testimony from a string of former Trump aides and associates in connection with the investigation. On Friday, House Intelligence Committee chairman Devin Nunes said Mr. Trump’s former campaign chairman Paul Manafort would appear before his panel. Carter Page, a former Trump campaign adviser, said he “would eagerly welcome the chance to speak with the committee to help finally set the record straight.” Roger Stone, a GOP operative who has advised Mr. Trump, also said he is willing to appear before the committee.
VEB, which has been used to finance political projects such as the Sochi Olympics development, recently became embroiled in a spy scandal, with federal prosecutors accusing one of its top New York executives of operating as a spy under nonofficial cover.
The No. 2 employee at VEB’s New York office, Evgeny Buryakov, pleaded guilty in March 2016 to conspiring to act in the U.S. as a Russian agent without providing prior notice to the U.S. attorney general. Federal prosecutors had accused him and two others of spying in New York for the SVR, Russia’s foreign intelligence agency. Mr. Buryakov was sentenced in May to 30 months in U.S. prison for conspiring to work for Russian intelligence.
Mr. Gorkov, the bank’s chairman, graduated in 1994 from the Academy of the Federal Security Service of Russia, a school for intelligence officials. He later worked for the now-defunct Russian oil giant Yukos and state-controlled Sberbank before taking the top job at VEB.
The plunge in oil prices and Western sanctions over the Ukraine crisis have pushed the bank into financial trouble, forcing the Russian government to undertake a bailout.