Here’s who Jared Kushner really sold out to Robert Mueller
Today we learned that Jared Kushner spent at least six hours giving testimony to Special Counsel Robert Mueller last month. This is a big deal, because the official story out of Kushner’s camp has long been that he wasn’t going to cooperate, even after he did have a very brief interview with Mueller back in November. The question of course is who Kushner sold out in April in order to keep his own skin. It’s not that difficult to parse.
It was widely reported back in November that Mueller’s brief interview with Jared Kushner was focused on Kushner’s interactions with Michael Flynn. In hindsight we know that, by this time, Flynn was already secretly in talks to cut a plea deal. So Mueller was probably trying to get Kushner to say something that Flynn’s forthcoming plea deal would prove to have been a lie, which would have allowed Mueller to nail Kushner on lying to a federal investigator.
Kushner probably figured this out after the fact, and it’s why he’s avoided Mueller up to this point. We still don’t know whether or not Mueller managed to catch Kushner lying during that initial meeting. But we do know that Kushner’s second Mueller interview came just weeks after Trump’s White House revoked Kushner’s top level security clearance. Just as Trump drove Flynn into Mueller’s arms by spitefully refusing to include Flynn in the pool of people whose legal costs were being defrayed, Trump may have driven Kushner into Mueller’s arms as well. But just who did Kushner give up?
We know this wasn’t about Michael Flynn, because he’s already cut a plea deal and therefore won’t be tried. There’s also no meaningful connection between Kushner and Paul Manafort, who’s about to go on trial. Nor would Robert Mueller waste an opportunity to interview a big fish like Kushner by focusing on any smaller fish. There are only four people who can be seen as bigger fish than Kushner: Donald Trump, Donald Trump Jr, Mike Pence, and arguably Jeff Sessions. Of that list, Kushner was likely only in a position to sell out Trump and/or Trump Jr. No wonder Donald Trump is panicking.
