Lawyers for Donald Trump were so concerned with Jared Kushner’s possible ties to Russian involvement in the 2016 presidential election they told the president in June that his son-in-law should step down as senior White House adviser, the Wall Street Journal reports.
Kushner’s failure to disclose several contacts with foreign entities on his security clearance form, combined with his sprawling business dealing with Russian officials (some of which are currently being probed by federal and Congressional investigators) worried the president’s legal advisers.
As the Journal reports, Trump’s legal team—which has been through several iterations since the president first took office in January—was not unanimous in its view that Kushner should step down, nor was Trump convinced his son-in-law presented a threat to his young presidency. “I didn’t agree with that view at all. I thought it was absurd,” lawyer John Dowd told the Journal. “I made my views known.”
“I never discussed with other lawyers for the President that Jared Kushner should step down from his position at the White House, I never recommended to the President that Mr. Kushner should step down from that position and I am not aware that any other lawyers for the President made any such recommendation either,” Marc Kasowitz, who headed Trump’s legal team before Dowd, said.
Read the full report at the Wall Street Journal.