Report: Jared Kushner helped establish back channel with North Korea
Jared Kushner, advisor and son-in-law of President Trump Photo: Nicholas Kamm/AFP/Getty Images
A Singapore-based American businessman with connections to the North Korean government attempted to use President Trump’s son-in-law and senior advisor, Jared Kushner, to create a back channel between the White House and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, which played a part in the leaders' historic meeting in Singapore, The New York Times reports.
The details: Sources told The Times that Kushner didn’t play a direct role in back-channel negotiations with North Korean officials. Instead, he referred the financier, Gabriel Schulze, to then-CIA Director Mike Pompeo and requested that the agency take the lead. The Times notes that Kushner and then-Secretary of State Rex Tillerson had a tense relationship.
The White House and CIA declined to comment to the Times about Schulze’s contact with Kushner.
The backdrop: North Korea had reportedly targeted Kushner as someone immune to the White House's turbulent staff changes — and who was close enough to Trump to catch his ear.
Be smart: This disclosure gives another peek into the Trump White House's unconventional style where personal and family ties can shape U.S. foreign policy.
His active involvement in China policy has triggered concerns amid reports that his company was negotiating with a Chinese firm to invest millions of dollars in his family’s Kushner Companies' flagship property in Manhattan.
