29 May, 2017
The White House has been battered in recent days by a relentless stream of sourced reports about alleged Trump campaign contacts with Russian Federation, and President Donald Trump is hitting back on Twitter.
"It is my opinion that numerous leaks coming out of the White House are fabricated lies made up by the #FakeNews media", the president said in a series of tweets Sunday morning.
According to the person familiar with the Kushner meeting, the Trump team eventually felt there was no need for a back channel once Rex Tillerson was confirmed as secretary of state, which took place February 1.
Kushner spoke with Ambassador Sergey Kislyak about creating that line of communication to facilitate sensitive discussions aimed at exploring the incoming administration's options with Russian Federation as it was developing its Syria policy, a person familiar with the discussions told The Associated Press.
He added: "Whenever you see the words 'sources say" in the fake news media, and they don't mention names.it is very possible that those sources don't exist but are made up by fake news writers'. "#FakeNews is the enemy!" the United States leader wrote, spelling errors and all.
However, the eve of his return brought the biggest story to date: A Washington Post report about Kushner's alleged proposal to the Russians to create a secret channel out of the reach of USA spymasters.
The House Intelligence Committee's top Democrat called for a review of Jared Kushner's security clearance over questions of whether he was truthful about his contacts with Russian Federation.
Though Kushner has appeared "subdued", he does not plan to step aside as Trump's senior adviser or reduce his responsibilities, the New York Times reported, citing unnamed people close to him.
Meanwhile, Trump also addressed a controversy that arose last week, when British authorities publicly complained that USA officials had leaked sensitive information about the bomber who killed more than 20 people at a Manchester concert.
Trump plans to make an announcement within the week on his climate position, the official said.
Republicans, meanwhile, downplayed the reports about Kushner - with Sen. But he said that in general, "We have backchannel communication with a number of countries". He added: "It allows you to communicate in a discreet manner". "I would not be concerned about it".
But a former head of the US National Security Agency harshly condemned Kushner's alleged effort to set up a secret communications line, saying if it is true, it would reveal a unsafe degree of ignorance or naivete. Michael Hayden said on CNN.
Trump also leaned on two administration officials with military experience to defend Kushner, who has become a significant person of interest in the FBI's investigation into whether the Trump campaign coordinated with Moscow in its efforts to sway the presidential election toward Trump.
On CNN's "State of the Union", Booker said he had "very serious concerns" but was not ready yet to call for Kushner's security clearance to be revoked. Trump has denounced the latest round of news reports, saying that some of them could be based on fabricated sources. He remains an influential confidant within the White House as does his wife, Ivanka Trump. The article said Kushner sought to set up a secret line of communication with Russian Federation during the presidential transition.
Trump aides traveling with the president in Europe have refused to address the contents of Kushner's December meeting with the Russian diplomat.
"He talked to members of the Senate and House intel committee that he was sitting on emails that the Russians had between the Democratic Party and the Department of Justice that were highly explosive", Graham said.
Former CIA director John Brennan revealed this week that intelligence chiefs had been looking into suspicious contacts between Trump campaign associates and Russian officials since mid-2016.
