While President Trump and the White House continue to deny there’s any fire amidst the increasing smoke emanating from the investigation into the 2016 election, it seems a sure bet that some in the administration were especially nervous when former Chief of Staff Reince Priebus sat down last week to be interviewed by Special Counsel Robert Mueller.
Gabriel Sherman of Vanity Fair reports that not only did Preibus spend hours with Mueller’s team, he is also “chomping at the bit to testify.” And that could be very bad news for Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner. Sherman notes:
“According to sources familiar with the matter, the person in Trump’s orbit who may have the most to be worried about in Priebus’s testimony is Jared Kushner. Priebus has knowledge of Kushner’s proximity to the controversial decision to fire Comey during a weekend at Trump’s golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, in early May, which, hypothetically, is the lynchpin of an obstruction case against the president and his advisers. Trump was accompanied for the weekend by Kushner, Ivanka Trump, and Stephen Miller. At the club, Miller drafted an angry letter to Comey justifying his removal. (White House counsel Don McGahn reportedly told Trump to revise the letter, which people who viewed it likened to a “screed.”) The following Monday, after returning to Washington, Trump told other advisers, including Priebus, of the decision to oust Comey during an Oval Office meeting.”
Priebus, who was unceremoniously dumped from the West Wing in the few days that Anthony Scaramucci was serving as unofficial communications director, is said to be angry and bitter about how he was treated by the president.
And Kushner may have a lot of entanglements that will of particular interest to the special counsel:
“Some in the West Wing were concerned about Kushner’s entanglements even before he was a government employee. According to two sources familiar with the matter, transition officials became concerned about meetings that Kushner had helped to set up with representatives from the Chinese insurance giant Anbang and the Qatari Sovereign Wealth Fund to raise hundreds of millions to bail out 666 Fifth Avenue, the debt-laden crown jewel in his family’s real-estate empire. The meetings raise ethical questions given Kushner’s status as a presidential adviser involved in foreign policy. They worried that he could be subject to, as one of them put it, “an influence operation” by foreign governments.”
Might Preibus be willing to tell all he knows about Kushner’s shady dealings under oath? A source told Sherman that after Priebus met with Mueller, he commented:
“I really didn’t want to hurt anyone.”
Perhaps not, but he may not have any choice if his own ass is on the line and he’s facing prison time.
Featured Image Via Yahoo News
