WASHINGTON ― The secretary of homeland security defended on Sunday reports that President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and close adviser Jared Kushner discussed establishing a secret backchannel between Trump’s transition team and Russian officials, claiming that it was “normal” and “acceptable.”
“Any way that you can communicate with people, particularly organizations that are maybe not particularly friendly to us, is a good thing,” Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly told ABC’s Martha Raddatz. “It’s not a bad thing to have multiple communication lines to any government.”
Sec. Kelly calls back-channels "normal...and acceptable": "It's not a bad thing to have multiple communications lines to any government." pic.twitter.com/kzFYghd4eh
The report, published by The Washington Post late Friday, originated during a previously reported meeting between Kushner and Russian ambassador Sergei Kislyak in December, before Trump became president. Also present at the meeting was former national security adviser Mike Flynn, who was fired earlier this year for lying to administration officials about discussing sanctions with Russia.
Like Trump and his top aides, Kelly dismissed the mounting scandals facing the administration by insisting that the real problem is the leaking of information, which is “darn close to treason,” the retired general said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
The reports about Kushner come as he is being investigated as part of the FBI’s probe into ties between Trump’s team and Russia. In addition to the meeting with Kislyak, Kushner also met with the head of a Russian state-owned bank.
Kelly on Sunday defended Kushner as “a great guy,” saying that there was no “big issue here.”
“I know Jared. He’s a great guy, decent guy,” he said on “Meet the Press.” “His number one interest, really, is the nation. So you know there’s a lot of different ways to communicate, backchannel, publicly with other countries. I don’t see any big issue here relative to Jared.”
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