NYT Strikes Again: How Kushner Could Have Tried to Create Link With Putin

US President Donald Trump's son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner could have held a meeting in 2016 with the chief of Russia's state development bank Vnesheconombank (VEB), allegedly to establish a basis of communication between the US administration and Russian President Vladimir Putin, the New York Times reported.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — In March, the New York Times reported that Kushner had a meeting with Sergei Gorkov, the chief of the VEB. Earlier in May, US media reported that Kushner was supposedly under scrutiny by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) because of interactions with Russian officials, such as Ambassador to the United States Sergei Kislyak, and that Trump's adviser made efforts to establish a channel between the White House and the Kremlin.

The meeting could be a part of Kushner's attempts to establish a communication channel with Moscow outside of the existing channels, the New York Times reported, citing "current and former American officials."

At the same time, the news outlet added that it was not clear if Kushner saw Gorkov as a person who could be used to establish a communications line or even if the meeting with the Russian banker aimed at establishing such a channel.

US media outlets and officials have repeatedly accused members of Trump's team of having contacts with Russia, alleging that Moscow used these contacts for its own ends and even meddled in the US 2016 presidential election. Moscow has repeatedly refuted the US allegations, saying it had no intention to meddle in internal affairs of other states.

US media outlets, including The Washington Post, have repeatedly reported about Kislyak's contacts with Trump's advisers suspecting the diplomat of illegal activities. At the same time, several other media outlets, such as CNN, have called the Russian diplomat a "top spy" and "spy-recruiter." The Russian Foreign Ministry has repeatedly called on the US to stop spreading such information about the ambassador, calling the reports "absolutely incompetent lies."