Several lawyers advised President Donald Trump earlier this summer that the White House adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner should step down from his role because of the prospective legal complications with the ongoing Russia investigation, The Wall Street Journal reports.
The Journal writes that some of Trump’s lawyers were concerned about Kushner, who had several meetings with Russian officials during the 2016 presidential campaign, and brought those concerns to the President as well.
Press aides to Trump’s legal team allegedly even went so far as to draft a statement explaining why Kushner was leaving the White House. In the statement, they blamed a toxic political environment for turning Kushner’s meeting with a Russian lawyer during the 2016 campaign into an attack on Trump.
That meeting, which was also attended by Donald Trump Jr. and former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort, was reportedly a central concern of Trump’s lawyers. At the infamous meeting, Trump’s campaign team was offered potentially damaging information about Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.
In his testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee in July, Kushner described the meeting as a “waste of our time.” The head of Trump’s legal team, John Dowd, said he didn’t agree with Trump’s other lawyers in their assessment of Kushner.
Trump’s lawyers were also worried Kushner may create legal problems for others in the White House by discussing the Russia probe with other aides or with Trump without a lawyer present.
The lawyers also expressed concern over Kushner’s federal disclosure forms, which the senior adviser has updated multiple times since his initial filing, adding more than 100 names to a list of foreign individuals he has had contact with.
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