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White House senior adviser Jared Kushner has turned over documents to special counsel Robert Mueller in recent weeks, and investigators have begun asking in witness interviews about the son-in-law’s role in the firing of former FBI Director James Comey, sources briefed on the probe told CNN.
Kushner reportedly advised the president to fire Comey, over the advice of some other senior advisers, and was present during a weekend when the president drafted a letter to fire the director.
The questioning of Kushner’s role in Comey’s firing signals that Mueller has moved past the campaign and is looking at whether there was any obstruction of justice in firing the former FBI director, who was then leading the Russia probe. Kushner is reportedly not a target of the investigation.
The 36-year-old voluntarily turned over documents from the campaign and from the transition, which were similar to ones he had given congressional investigators earlier this year.
A White House official told CNN that the special counsel’s questions about Kushner are not a surprise.
How much of a factor Kushner played in Comey’s firing is a point of dispute within the White House, with some sources telling CNN he had no influence and others calling him the “driver” of the decision.
Kushner has denied any collusion or wrongdoing during or after the election season.
Kushner has come under scrutiny for attending a meeting with a Russian lawyer at Trump Tower, which was set up under the premise that she had dirt on Hillary Clinton. During the meeting, the lawyer reportedly lobbied Donald Trump, Jr., Kushner, and then-campaign chair Paul Manafort on overturning the Magnitsky Act.
Kushner was also under scrutiny for meetings with Russia’s ambassador to the U.S. and a Russian banker, and for failing to list hundreds of meetings with foreign contacts on his security clearance forms, which he blamed on an assistant.
Other “points of focus” on Kushner include his involvement on Trump’s campaign data analytics operation, and his relationship with former national security adviser Michael Flynn, sources told CNN.
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