Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) said Tuesday that senior adviser to the President Jared Kushner had engaged in a “serious breach” of protocol when he reportedly sought to set up a communications backchannel with the Russian government using Russian facilities.
“Look, these guys, the administration, they’re not acting like people who have nothing to hide,” Franken said.
Franken’s remarks came in an appearance on CBS’ “This Morning.”
“He didn’t disclose a lot of his contacts with mainly, I guess, Russians,” Franken said, noting it was illegal not to list such meetings on a security clearance application. Kushner later amended his clearance application.
“And then there’s this peculiar one where he was trying to set up a thing within the Russian communications system so that our own intelligence couldn’t be part of it, which is very unusual,” Franken added. “Look, we have a special prosecutor. We’re going to be looking at this. This might come out to, you know, what did the President know, and when did his son-in-law tell him?”
The Washington Post reported on Friday, citing unnamed U.S. officials briefed on intercepted Russian conversations, that Kushner had discussed establishing a secret backchannel to the Kremlin, using equipment in Russian facilities in the United States, with Russia’s ambassador to the United States in December.
CBS’ Charlie Rose asked Franken if he thought Kushner’s security clearance should be revoked.
“I think we should look at that,” Franken responded. “This is a pretty bad breach.”
Watch below via CBS:
