WASHINGTON (AP) - President Donald Trump's son-in-law and adviser Jared Kushner answered questions from Senate investigators for hours behind closed doors Monday, acknowledging four meetings with Russians during and after Trump's victorious White House bid and insisting he had "nothing to hide." He emerged smiling to publicly declare, "All of my actions were proper."
Kushner, a quiet insider who generally avoids the spotlight, was the first top Trump lieutenant to be quizzed by the congressional investigators probing Russia's meddling in the 2016 presidential election. The wealthy developer-turned-presidential adviser spoke privately with staff members of the Senate intelligence committee and will return to talk to the House intelligence panel Tuesday.
"Let me be very clear," Kushner said afterward in a rare public statement at the White House. "I did not collude with Russia, nor do I know of anyone else in the campaign who did so."
Trump watched on TV as Kushner made his appearance outside the West Wing and "thought Jared did a great job," said White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders. She said his House testimony today would show "what a hoax this entire thing is."
Earlier Monday, Kushner released an 11-page statement of his remarks to both the Senate and House committees. In it, he acknowledged his Russian contacts during the campaign and then the following weeks, in which he served as a liaison between the transition and foreign governments. He described each contact as either insignificant or routine and he said the meetings, along with several others, were omitted from his security clearance form because of an aide's error. Kushner cast himself as a political novice learning in real time to juggle "thousands of meetings and interactions" in a fast-paced campaign.
His statement was the first detailed defense from a campaign insider responding to the controversy. U.S. intelligence agencies have concluded Russia sought to tip the 2016 campaign in Trump's favor. Congressional committees, as well as a Justice Department special counsel, are investigating whether Trump associates coordinated with Russia in that effort and whether the president has sought to hamper the investigations.
Kushner said Monday he "will continue to cooperate as I have nothing to hide."
He called the June 2016 Trump Tower meeting with Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya such a "waste of time" he asked his assistant to call him out of the gathering. He said he arrived late and when he heard the lawyer discussing the issue of international adoptions, he texted his assistant to call him out.
"No part of the meeting I attended included anything about the campaign; there was no follow-up to the meeting that I am aware of; I do not recall how many people were there (or their names), and I have no knowledge of any documents being offered or accepted," he said.