Reported Talks by Jared Kushner With Russia Would Be ‘Good Thing,’ Trump Official Says -<br />By MATT FLEGENHEIMER and PETER BAKERMAY 28, 2017<br />WASHINGTON — John F. Kelly, President Trump’s homeland security secretary, on Sunday defended a reported effort by Jared Kushner, the president’s embattled son-in-law<br />and key adviser, to establish a secret channel with Russia during the transition, calling it “a good thing.”<br />“Any information flow into the government and then considered by the government, I won’t criticize that,” Mr. Kelly said<br />in an interview on ABC’s “This Week.” “All of these lines of communication are a positive thing, in my opinion.”<br />Mr. Kelly’s remarks came amid news that Mr. Kushner was a focus of investigations into possible collusion between Russia<br />and Mr. Trump’s associates during the campaign and transition, a development that has consumed an already-beleaguered White House.<br />If the reports that Mr. Kushner had discussed a secret channel were true, Mr. Schiff said, “it’s obviously very concerning.”<br />“You have to ask,” he said on ABC’s “This Week,” “well, who are they hiding the conversations from?”<br />James R. Clapper Jr., who was until January the director of national intelligence, said<br />that although he had not seen “any smoking-gun-certitude evidence of collusion” by the time of his departure, his antenna was up.
