The story first came to public light in April. The New York Times reported that Jared Kushner, Donald Trump’s powerful son-in-law, sought the top-secret security clearance before starting his position in the White House, and at the time, “he was required to disclose all encounters with foreign government officials over the last seven years.”
The article added that failing to disclose foreign contacts can, in some instances, lead to officials losing “access to intelligence, or worse.”
This was relevant because Kushner had failed to disclose a meeting with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak and a separate meeting with Sergey Gorkov, the head of a Russian state-owned bank, Vnesheconombank (or VEB). It’s suddenly relevant anew, however, in light of the June 2016 meeting Kushner attended with Donald Trump Jr., Paul Manafort, and a Kremlin-linked lawyer. The latest New York Times report noted:
The president learned from his aides about the 2016 meeting at the end of the trip, according to a White House official. But some people in the White House had known for several days that it had occurred, because Mr. Kushner had revised his foreign contact disclosure document to include it.
Much of the focus over the last few days has been on Trump Jr., and for good reason. He reportedly received an email suggesting the Russian government wanted to help elect his father, and Trump Jr. was apparently prepared to collude with Russia to that end.
But have you noticed just how many meetings Kushner attended with Russians, which he initially failed to disclose? There were the discussions with the Russian ambassador, the meeting with Gorkov, and now the meeting with Natalia Veselnitskaya. Kushner has now disclosed each of these meetings, but he was supposed to have already done so. He didn’t. Is he really that forgetful? Or is it more likely there’s a less benign explanation?
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past." Recommended
