Senate Judiciary Committee requests more documents from Jared Kushner in Russia probe

WASHINGTON — Leaders of the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday gave Jared Kushner — President Trump’s son-in-law and adviser — until Nov. 27 to turn over more documents for its investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election.

Specifically, the committee is seeking transcripts of Kushner’s interviews with other congressional committees, missing documents related to WikiLeaks, communications with fired national security adviser Michael Flynn, and information about Kushner’s security clearance to work at the White House.

Kushner has had to amend his security clearance forms several times after failing to disclose meetings with Russian officials.

If Kushner does not comply with the committee’s request, the panel has the power to issue a subpoena for the documents or to compel Kushner’s testimony. Kushner’s attorney, Abbe Lowell, had no immediate comment Thursday.

Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California, the committee’s senior Democrat, sent a joint letter to Lowell to inform him that the set of documents they received from Kushner earlier this month was incomplete. The committee requested documents from Kushner on Oct. 18 and received some of them on Nov. 3.

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The senators said they want transcribed interviews of Kushner conducted behind closed doors by both the Senate and House intelligence committees. Kushner has not testified before the Judiciary Committee but promised to give them access to the other interviews, according to the senators’ letter. All three committees are investigating Russian meddling in last year’s election and possible collusion between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin.

 “If you are able to secure for the Committee copies of the transcripts from Mr. Kushner’s other interviews, then please provide them and we will consider whether the transcript satisfies the needs of our investigation,” Grassley and Feinstein wrote to Lowell. They asked him to contact the committee immediately about the transcripts.

The senators also said that several key documents were missing from the set provided by Kushner. The missing documents included “all communications to, from or copied to you relating to” certain individuals, which the letter did not name.

“If, as you suggest, Mr. Kushner was unaware of, for example, any attempts at Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, then presumably there would be few communications concerning many of the persons identified in our second request, and the corresponding burden of searching would be small,” Grassley and Feinstein wrote.

The senators also said that Kushner failed to provide documents related to WikiLeaks. American intelligence analysts believe the Russians used WikiLeaks to publish hacked information about Hillary Clinton and the Democratic National Committee during last year’s presidential campaign. The organization’s founder, Julian Assange, has denied the accusations.

“Other parties have produced September 2016 email communications to Mr. Kushner concerning WikiLeaks, which Mr. Kushner then forwarded to another campaign official,” Grassley and Feinstein said. “Such documents should have been produced in response to the … request but were not.”

The senators also are seeking all of Kushner’s communications with Flynn about Flynn’s firing or anything to do with Russia.

Trump fired Flynn in February for misleading Vice President Pence and other White House officials about conversations he had with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak. Trump later expressed regret about firing Flynn.

Former FBI director James Comey has alleged in public testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee that Trump pressed him to drop the FBI’s investigation of Flynn. Comey did not drop the investigation. Trump later fired Comey.

Grassley and Feinstein also objected to Kushner’s refusal to provide documents they requested from his security clearance forms. The refusal, according to the senators, was “on the basis that the documents are confidential and have been submitted to the FBI for its review.”

“With regard to your claim that the documents are confidential, while the Privacy Act limits the government’s authority to release the information provided to it, there is no restriction on your client’s ability to provide that information to Congress,” the senators wrote.

They also said accepted Lowell’s offer to allow the committee, at his office, to review unredacted copies of the documents that Kushner has already provided.

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