What got Michael Flynn in trouble—supposedly—isn’t that he was having frequent chats with the Russian ambassador. It’s that he wasn’t being open about those chats and explaining what they were really about. Who else is known to be in a similar situation?
Only on Monday did it emerge that executives of Russian state development bank Vnesheconombank (VEB) had talks with Kushner during a bank roadshow last year.
Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner forgot to mention that he met with Russian bankers in addition to the Russian ambassador. But it was okay.
At Mr. Kislyak’s request, Mr. Kushner later met with Sergey N. Gorkov, the chief of Vnesheconombank, which the United States placed on its sanctions list after President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia annexed Crimea and began meddling in Ukraine.
Kushner met with Russian bankers at the request of the Russian ambassador. Nothing of consequence. Routine. Nothing to see here. Just part of his role on the transition team.
But Mr. Gorkov, who previously served as deputy chairman of the board at Sberbank, Russia’s largest state-owned bank, said in a statement issued by his bank that he met with Mr. Kushner in his capacity as the then-chief executive of Kushner Companies, his family’s sprawling real estate empire.
The Trump White House says Kushner’s encounter with the banker was ordinary business of the transition, and nothing of consequence was discussed. Only the bankers say they were there to talk to Kushner in his business role.
Because, like Trump himself, Kushner’s totally-not-nepotism role in the Trump regime doesn’t seem to come with any requirement that he step away from his ability to make business deals on the side.
U.S. officials said that after meeting with Russian Kislyak at Trump Tower last December, a meeting also attended by Flynn, Kushner met later in December with Sergei Gorkov, chairman of Vnesheconombank.
Kushner failed to report meetings and mischaracterized those meetings he did report. And as it turns out, there was another Trump regime member also meeting with VEB.
Carter Page Met With Board Member Dvorkovich From VEB Last Year!Kushner Met With The Head Of The Bank..VEB Was Involved In Spy Ring NY
VEB has deep ties into the Russian government (Arkady Dvorkovich, who met with Page, is not just a board member at VEB, but deputy prime minister). It has deep ties into Rosneft.
Why did it take until Monday for Kushner to “remember” his bank meetings, and why did he, and the White House, continue to act as if they had been routine business of the transition when they were clearly connected to his real estate business?
And on that topic … what kind of routine business could the transition have with Russian bankers?