Five key figures from the Donald Trump campaign are facing new complications in their efforts to rebut allegations of inappropriate contacts with Russian operatives during and after the presidential race. Here’s a look at the latest.

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Kushner addressed the public on 24 July in a rare appearance at the White House to repeat what he had told senate investigators earlier in the day: that he had had no improper contacts with Russia.

“Let me be very clear: I did not collude with Russia, nor do I know anyone else in the campaign who did so,” Kushner said. “I had no improper contacts. I have not relied on Russian funds for my businesses. And I have been fully transparent in providing all requested information.”

Multiple chapters of Kushner’s conduct during and after the campaign have been called into question, with reports that he tried to set up a secret back channel to Moscow, that he failed to disclose meetings with multiple Russian figures, and that he secured a big real estate deal with a Soviet-born oligarch whose company was cited in a major New York money laundering case. Kushner has had to update a disclosure form used to apply for security clearances multiple times because he originally left off about 100 relevant contacts with foreign entities.

Kushner has denied wrongdoing in every case. While no evidence of lawbreaking by Kushner has come to light, he could, based on the allegations against him, face charges of breaking campaign finance laws or making false statements.

Trump Jr has receded from the spotlight a bit since the revelation that he had leapt at an offer during the presidential campaign of “ultra sensitive” “official documents and information” on Hillary Clinton to be provided by a “Russian government attorney”.



Trump Jr said that while he might in retrospect have done better to skip the June 2016 meeting at Trump Tower that resulted, the meeting itself was above-board and featured a conversation about adoption – an issue closely linked to anti-Russia sanctions.

Trump came to his son’s defense in interviews and on Twitter, where he wrote: “Most politicians would have gone to a meeting like the one Don jr attended in order to get info on an opponent. That’s politics!”

The president’s eldest son was expected to appear before the Senate intelligence committee on Wednesday but the session has been postponed after he agreed to supply documents to the committee.

The intelligence committee might focus on the June 2016 meeting at Trump Tower involving Trump Jr and multiple pro-Kremlin activists, including a Russian attorney and a Russian lobbyist. A source inside the meeting said the Russians handed the Trump campaign documents relating to donors to the Democratic National Committee, but it is not clear what changed hands, if anything.

“As a legal matter, it’s irresponsible for anyone to be calling this ‘treason’,” the Fordham law school professor Jed Shugerman told the Guardian of Trump Jr’s meeting. “These terms not only have legal meaning but they also can be part of overplaying a legal or rhetorical hand.” Trump Jr may have violated campaign finance laws.

The attorney general is a beleaguered figure, according to the president himself, who tweeted: “So why aren’t the Committees and investigators, and of course our beleaguered A.G., looking into Crooked Hillarys crimes & Russia relations?”

Sessions has sustained two devastating blows in recent weeks. The most recent was a leak of US intelligence intercepts contradicting Sessions’ assurances to the senate, under oath, that he had not discussed the presidential campaign with the Russian ambassador.

The ambassador, Sergey Kislyak, told his superiors in Moscow he talked about campaign-related matters and significant policy issues during two meetings with Sessions, according to current and former US intelligence officials, the Washington Post reported.

If the summaries of the conversations are accurate, Sessions could face charges of making false statements before Congress, a serious – though rarely prosecuted and difficult to prove – crime.

But Sessions was already under immense pressure, after Trump told the New York Times that he regretted hiring him after Sessions recused himself from the Russia investigation. (As head of the justice department, Sessions would typically have overseen the FBI investigation of Trump campaign contacts with Russia, but as a former member of the campaign himself, Sessions had a clear conflict of interest, according to internal rules and his own judgment.)

Bradd Jaffy (@BraddJaffy) Trump rolls his eyes when asked if Sessions should resign; tells reporter to “be quiet” when asked about health carepic.twitter.com/terMPUDSlz

“Sessions should have never recused himself, and if he was going to recuse himself, he should have told me before he took the job, and I would have picked somebody else,” Trump told the Times. In response, Sessions said he planned to stay in the post. The president was asked about that decision and rolled his eyes.

Trump’s former campaign chairman has agreed to hand documents to the Senate intelligence committee by 2 August and when he speaks to the committee – possibly behind closed doors – he is likely to take questions about his past business practices in Ukraine and his lobbying work for Moscow-linked interests.

Since the election, it has emerged that Manafort was paid by foreign interests in arrangements that he had failed to declare to the US government. A month ago, Manafort registered retroactively with the justice department as a foreign agent for lobbying work he did from 2012 to 2014 for the Ukrainian political party. The filing said that Manafort’s firm had received $17.1m over two years from the party, which US voters did not know about last November.



Manafort resigned from the Trump campaign after his name turned up in a secret ledger of payments by a Moscow-backed Ukrainian political party. Failure to register as a foreign agent is not a crime that is typically prosecuted, though the retroactive filing may involve a fine.

Flynn, the former national security adviser, has gone to ground in recent months, invoking fifth amendment protections against self-incrimination to avoid testifying before Congress. Concerns about Flynn’s contacts with Russia, including a December 2015 dinner in Russia with Vladimir Putin, were relayed by the justice department to the Trump White House within a week of the inauguration, but it was not until details of Flynn’s contacts with Kislyak and others were leaked to the press that Trump accepted Flynn’s resignation.

Flynn retroactively registered as a foreign agent this year after working as a consultant in 2016 for a Turkish businessman. Flynn also reportedly took tens of thousands of dollars from Russia-linked companies for speeches and possibly other unspecified services.

Like Kushner, Flynn failed to note his foreign contacts on disclosure forms used to obtain – or, in Flynn’s case, maintain – security clearances. Flynn spoke with Pentagon investigators as part of the process. He also later spoke separately with FBI agents about his contacts with the Russian ambassador.

If Flynn was less than frank in any of those legally binding conversations, he may run a risk of prosecution for making false statements, the New York Times noted. He may also be prosecutable for having taken foreign payments without permission as a retired military officer, for having failed to register as a foreign agent and for having failed to comply with subpoenas.

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