Back-channel communication with foreign nations of the type that White House adviser Jared Kushner reportedly sought with the Russian government are “the regular course of business,” counselor to the president Kellyanne Conway said Tuesday morning.
The Washington Post and other media outlets reported over the weekend that Kushner, the president’s son-in-law and senior adviser, suggested to Russia’s ambassador to the U.S. that the Kremlin and Trump’s transition team set up a secret communications channel and meet in Russian diplomatic facilities in order to avoid U.S. intelligence operations.
Former U.S. national security officials have suggested that such a line of communication would be out of the norm for a presidential transition team and that could possibly be illegal. But Conway downplayed the reports of Kushner’s proposals to Russian officials as falling within the realm of ordinary White House work.
“Back channels like this are the regular course of business. And that’s really all that we know,” she told Fox News’s “Fox & Friends” on Tuesday. “And I think it’s very important to recognize that the president has expressed full confidence in Jared Kushner and also went on to note the considerable progress and very large important portfolio that Jared oversees here at the White House.”
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Kellyanne Conway calls Kushner's backchannels 'regular course of business' https://t.co/yoXA1gotkZ pic.twitter.com/AtdAn5IpDU
— POLITICO (@politico) May 30, 2017
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