(JTA) — White House senior adviser Jared Kushner exchanged emails about WikiLeaks in the lead-up to the 2016 presidential election, members of the Senate Judiciary Committee said.
The assertion, which comes amid a probe of alleged Russian intervention in the election, came Thursday in a letter sent by the committee’s chairman, Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and ranking member Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., to Kushner’s lawyer.
Prior to the election, WikiLeaks published emails, widely thought to have been hacked by the Russian government, damaging to Hillary Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta and the Democratic National Committee.
In the letter, Grassley and Feinstein say Kushner received an email about WikiLeaks in September 2016 and passed it on to an official within Trump’s campaign, along with a message about a “Russian backdoor overture and dinner invite,” The Hill reported.
The two senators demanded additional documents from Kushner, who is Trump’s son-in-law, as part of the committee’s ongoing investigation of Russia’s election interference.
There was also evidence that Kushner received copies of communications between unnamed others and Sergei Millian, a Belarusian-American businessman who gave authorities information about alleged Russian intervention in American politics.
Reports about the senators’ letter did not include precise information about the content of the emails they are seeking.
Kushner, who said he would cooperate with authorities probing the affair and has divulged some information, did not provide the emails in question, the senators wrote.
“You also have not produced any phone records that we presume exist and would relate to Mr. Kushner’s communications regarding several requests,” they added in the letter to Kushner’s lawyer, Abbe Lowell.
The letter says the documents provided to the Senate Judiciary Committee are “incomplete,” and gives Lowell until Nov. 27 to comply with the request.
“It appears that your search may have overlooked several documents,” the letter says.
Lowell said Thursday that Kushner and his legal representation have replied to all the requests they have received and will continue to cooperate with the Senate Judiciary Committee.
“We provided the Judiciary Committee with all relevant documents that had to do with Mr. Kushner’s calls, contacts or meetings with Russians during the campaign and transition, which was the request,” Lowell said in a statement.
The revelation that Kushner received communication about WikiLeaks prior to the November 2016 election comes several days after Donald Trump Jr,. the president’s son, confirmed his correspondence with WikiLeaks leading up to the vote.
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