President Donald Trump's son-in-law and adviser, Jared Kushner, has released the text of his impending congressional statement. In it, the former businessman insists that he was not responsible for submitting an incomplete SF-86 application and that the controversial June meeting he attended with a Kremlin-connected Russian lawyer was nothing more than a waste of his time.
"There has been a good deal of misinformation reported about my SF-86 form," Kushner said in his statement. "As my attorneys and I have previously explained, my SF-86 application was prematurely submitted due to a miscommunication and initially did not list any contacts (not just with Russians) with foreign government officials."
He also described the June 2016 meeting between himself, former campaign manager Paul Manafort and Donald Trump Jr. and a Kremlin-connected Russian lawyer as one in which he arrived "a little late."
Kushner added, "When I got there, the person who has since been identified as a Russian attorney was talking about the issue of a ban on U.S. adoptions of Russian children. I had no idea why that topic was being raised and quickly determined that my time was not well-spent at this meeting."
The president's son-in-law claimed that he even texted an assistant asking to be called on his cell phone as an excuse to leave the meeting early.
Kushner also spun his post-election conversation with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak about establishing a line of communication with Russian President Vladimir Putin as exonerating rather than suspicious.
"The fact that I was asking about ways to start a dialogue after Election Day should of course be viewed as strong evidence that I was not aware of one that existed before Election Day," Kushner wrote.
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