It is hard to go after a president.
Even the resignation of Richard Nixon back in the early 1970s took more than 25 months from the time of the break-in at Democratic National Committee headquarters the Watergate office to the actual date of resignation.
Now, instead of going after President Trump, who by all accounts had a successful overseas trip, people are going after his son-in-law, Jared Kushner.
Kushner has contributed to his own problems. He did not report his contacts with the Russians during his security clearance procedure. It has been reported that he did not remember all of his conversations. How do you not remember something like that?
A friend of mine was being vetted for a current administration job. He called me about the exact people we met with when he went to South Sudan. He wanted to tell the FBI any meetings we had, what dates we met with them, what I remembered about what we talked about. How do you not remember that you had contacts with a power as big as Russia?
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The New York Times reported: "The omissions, which Mr. Kushner's lawyer called an error, are particularly sensitive given the congressional and FBI investigations into contacts between Russian officials and Trump associates. Mr. Kushner's omissions were described by people with direct knowledge of them who asked for anonymity because the questionnaire is not a public document."
Meanwhile, to add to all the problems with Mr. Kushner, there are now reports being circulated about him and his family being slum landlords. ProPublica's Alec MacGills, had a lengthy article about the Kushner family and pursuing tenants in court. The article states: "JK2 Westminster ( a Kushner family company) … in the database of Maryland's District Court system brings back 548 cases in which it is the plaintiff – and that does not include hundreds of other cases that have been filed in the name of the company's individual complexes."
In addition to taking tenants to court, the ProPublica reporter said that the way the buildings were designed was to discourage neighbors from getting to know each other, by discouraging ball playing and not providing even a simple stoop to sit on so neighbors could talk to each other. The reporter details how repairs are not completed, and he was told by a tenant that there was only one drywall repair person. Reports abound about the lack of care and repairs in the Maryland complex owned by the Kushner family, according to Alec MacGills's ProPublica report.
"At Essex Park, east of the city, [a resident] "told me she had a mouse infestation that was severe enough that her 12-year-old daughter recently found one in her bed. The resident also has a 2-year-old with asthma, which is aggravated by allergens in mice droppings. She moved her own bed and other furniture away from the walls to dissuade mice, kept the family's laundry in tote bags after mice started appearing in the hamper and vacuumed twice a day. Her neighbor told me it took weeks for staff members to replace a rear window that had been shot out by kids with a BB gun."
Now, there are reports not only of Jared Kushner not remembering meetings that took place with the Russians but of trying to initiate a back channel with the Russians. The Washington Post reported, "Jared Kushner and Russia's ambassador to Washington discussed the possibility of setting up a secret and secure communications channel between Trump's transition team and the Kremlin, using Russian diplomatic facilities in an apparent move to shield their pre-inauguration discussions from monitoring, according to U.S. officials briefed on intelligence reports."
This is not good. I am not one of those commentators or reporters who thinks a reception that took place in Cleveland, Ohio, at the Republican convention and attended by Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn and the Russian ambassador is worth reporting. It was most likely a meet-and-greet, and anyone who has attended an event at one of the conventions knows how the people who go to them can get lost in a maze of hellos. However, Kushner's desire for a back channel is something else altogether, as is his reported reputation as a slumlord.
While people are criticizing President Trump for a number of things, it seems as if his family members are opening themselves up to more scrutiny.
Media wishing to interview Ellen Ratner, please contact [email protected].
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