Kushner Is Said to Have Discussed a Secret Channel to Talk to Russia -<br />By MAGGIE HABERMAN, MARK MAZZETTI and MATT APUZZOMAY 26, 2017<br />WASHINGTON — Jared Kushner, President Trump’s son-in-law<br />and senior adviser, spoke in December with Russia’s ambassador to the United States about establishing a secret communications channel between the Trump transition team and Moscow to discuss strategy in Syria and other policy issues, according to three people with knowledge of the discussion.<br />It is unclear who first proposed the communications channel,<br />but the people familiar with the meeting said the idea was to have Mr. Flynn speak directly with a senior military official in Moscow to discuss Syria and other security issues.<br />The idea behind the secret communications channel, the three people said, was for Russian military<br />officials to brief Mr. Flynn about the Syrian war and to discuss ways to cooperate there.<br />In the days after the meeting with Mr. Kislyak, Mr. Kushner had a separate meeting with Sergey<br />N. Gorkov, a Russian banker with close ties to Russia’s president, Vladimir V. Putin.<br />The conversation between Mr. Kushner and the ambassador, Sergey I. Kislyak, took place during a meeting at Trump Tower<br />that Mr. Trump’s presidential transition team did not acknowledge at the time.<br />That article said it was unclear whether Mr. Kushner spoke to Mr. Kislyak on his own or with other advisers to Mr. Trump.<br />Also present at the meeting was Michael T. Flynn, the retired general who would become<br />Mr. Trump’s short-lived national security adviser, the three people said.
