Investigators are reportedly looking into why Kushner met with a Putin-linked Russian banker

Alex Lockie

Mon, May 29, 2017, 8:21 PM

Jared Kushner, Senior Advisor to the President, arrives prior to U.S. President Donald Trump holding a joint news conference with Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni at the White House in Washington, U.S., April 20, 2017. REUTERS/Aaron P. Bernstein

(Jared Kushner, the senior adviser and son-in-law to President Donald Trump.Thomson Reuters)

Federal and congressional investigators are examining why Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump's senior adviser and son-in-law, met with Sergey N. Gorkov, a Russian banker who is close to Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to The New York Times.

The Washington Post previously reported that Sergey Kislyak, Russia's ambassador to the US, told his superiors in Moscow that Kushner proposed a backchannel line of communication between the Trump transition team and the Russian government in December.

Current and former Trump administration officials told The Times they had come to think the meeting in December could have been when Kushner tried to reach out to the Russians.

Kislyak facilitated Kushner's meeting with Gorkov, who has not been known to act in a diplomatic capacity for Putin. But the timing of their meeting has raised questions given allegations by US intelligence agencies that Russia had worked to meddle in November's election to help Trump.

Former US intelligence officials have told Business Insider's Natasha Bertrand that if Kushner did try to establish a backchannel to Russia without going through the conventional US intelligence paths, it would be "off the map," "explosive," and "extremely dangerous."

Trump's national security adviser, H.R. McMaster, said in a press conference Saturday that the US had backchannels with several countries, suggesting that the matter shouldn't be cause for concern.

Trump campaigned on an openness toward improving relations with Putin, specifically in the areas of counterterrorism and ending the Syrian civil war. Sources close to the administration defended the meetings to The Times, citing those causes.

But the reports that the meeting between Kushner and Gorkov is being investigated may suggest that the investigators remain skeptical, or unsatisfied, with the answers the Trump administration has provided. The FBI and separate congressional committees are conducting investigations into Russian interference in the 2016 election and whether any Trump associates were involved.