After indicting former campaign chairman Paul Manafort and his associate, Rick Gates, and securing a guilty plea with foreign policy advisor George Papadopoulos, Special Counsel Robert Mueller is ramping up the pressure on other Trump campaign and administrative figures. According to reports, Mueller is now setting his sights on White House senior advisor (and Trump son-in-law) Jared Kushner.
Kushner has reportedly turned over documents to Mueller’s team after investigators began asking witnesses what role Kushner played in President Trump’s decision to fire former FBI director James Comey. Via CNN:
Their questions about Kushner signal that Mueller’s investigators are reaching the President’s inner circle and have extended beyond the 2016 campaign to actions taken at the White House by high-level officials. It is not clear how Kushner’s advice to the President might relate to the overall Russia investigation or potential obstruction of justice.
However, investigators are also looking into Kushner’s role in the June 2016 meeting at Trump Tower with Donald Trump Jr., Russian agents, and other Trump campaign staff and campaign surrogates. The documents that Kushner turned over are reportedly similar to documents he handed over to congressional investigators and cover both the campaign and transition.
There is no consensus among those who spoke to CNN about how involved Kushner was in the decision to fire Comey in May, although one person said “that Kushner was a driver of the decision and expected it would be a political boon” for President Trump. However, even the theories as to why Kushner would want Comey to be replaced vary by several degrees.
(Via CNN)