Jared Kushner, the son-in-law of President Trump, will be questioned by the Senate Intelligence Committee as part of the panel's investigation into Russia’s interference during the 2016 election.
"Mr. Kushner has volunteered to be interviewed as part of the committee's investigation into the Russian activities surrounding the 2016 election," Sens. Richard Burr (R, N.C.) and Mark Warner (D, Va.), the committee's chairman and vice chairman, told The New York Times in a statement.
According to the Times, the questions for Kushner will focus on two meetings he had with Russian agents in December, prior to his father-in-law's inauguration as president.
The first took place with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak, alongside ousted national security adviser Michael Flynn, at Trump Tower.
The second was a previously undisclosed meeting between Kushner and Sergey Gorkov, the head of Russia’s state-owned Vnesheconombank, which has been under sanctions since the annexation of Crimea in 2014.
White House spokeswoman Hope Hicks confirmed both meetings, telling the Times that nothing of consequence was discussed and that the meetings went nowhere. The White House had previously only acknowledged the first meeting between Kushner and Kislyak.
A White House official told CBS News correspondent Mark Knoller that Kushner was the Trump campaign's "primary point of contact" with foreign governments and officials.
The disclosure of the Vnesheconombank meeting and Kushner's expected testimony comes on the day the president plans to unveil a new White House office, to be led by Kushner, that will be charged with overhauling the federal bureaucracy.
So far, seven associates of the president have been asked to testify before the Senate Intelligence Committee. In addition to Kushner and Flynn, the list includes Attorney General Jeff Sessions, campaign adviser Roger Stone, campaign manager Paul Manafort, policy advisor Carter Page and J.D. Gordon, who was the Trump campaign’s director of national security.
So far, Kushner is the closest advisor to Trump to be caught up in ongoing invesigations over Russia's attempts to influence the 2016 election.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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