Senate investigators plan to question Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump's son-in-law and a close adviser, as part of their broad inquiry into ties between Trump associates and Russian officials or others linked to the Kremlin, according to administration and congressional officials.
Kushner is the fourth Trump associate to offer to be interviewed by the congressional committees looking into the murky Russia ties. Trump's former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, Trump adviser Carter Page and Trump associate Roger Stone last week volunteered to speak to the committee as well.
It was not immediately clear when or how the Senate questioning would take place or whether Kushner would be under oath. An official familiar with the Senate investigation said the details of the interview have not yet been set, and that the Trump associates will speak to the committee on the committee's terms. That these Trump associates volunteered to be interviewed does not prevent the committee from issuing a subpoena for testimony. The official spoke on condition of anonymity in order to discuss details of the Senate investigation.
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The White House Counsel's Office was informed this month that the Senate Intelligence Committee, which is investigating Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, wanted to question Kushner about meetings he arranged with the Russian ambassador, Sergey Kislyak, according to the government officials. The meetings, which took place during the transition, included a previously unreported meeting with the head of Russia's state-owned development bank.
Until now, the White House had acknowledged only an early December meeting between Kislyak and Kushner, which occurred at Trump Tower and was also attended by Michael Flynn, who would briefly serve as the national security adviser.
Later that month, though, Kislyak requested a second meeting, which Kushner asked a deputy to attend in his stead, officials said. At Kislyak's request, Kushner later met with Sergey Gorkov, the chief of Vnesheconombank, which the United States placed on its sanctions list after Russian President Vladimir Putin annexed Crimea and began meddling in Ukraine.
A White House spokesman, Hope Hicks, confirmed those meetings, saying that nothing of consequence was discussed and that they went nowhere. Gorkov, who previously served as deputy chairman of the board at Sberbank, Russia's largest state-owned bank, could not be reached for comment.
Members of presidential transition teams routinely meet with foreign officials, and there is nothing inherently improper about sitting down with the Russian ambassador. Part of Kushner's role during the campaign and the transition was to serve as a chief conduit to foreign governments and officials, and Hicks said he met with dozens of officials from a variety of countries.
Hicks added that Kushner was willing to talk to Senate investigators about the meetings with Kislyak and the banker, saying, "He isn't trying to hide anything and wants to be transparent."
Still, meetings between Trump associates and Russian officials or others linked to Putin are now of heightened interest as several congressional committees and FBI investigators try to determine the scope of the Russia's intervention in the election and links between Russians and anyone around Trump.
The Senate panel's decision to question Kushner would make him the closest person to the president to be called upon in any of the investigations, and the only one currently serving in the White House. The officials who initially described that Senate inquiry to The New York Times did so on the condition of anonymity in order to speak candidly about Trump's son-in-law.
The FBI declined to comment. There are no indications that Kushner is a focus of its investigation, and Hicks said he had not been questioned by the bureau.
Information for this article was contributed by Jo Becker, Maggie Haberman, Matthew Rosenberg and Michael S. Schmidt of The New York Times and by Vivian Salama and Eileen Sullivan of The Associated Press.
A Section on 03/28/2017