Jared Kushner Under FBI Scrutiny in Russia Probe
BERMAN: ... senior official and, perhaps most importantly, son-in-law of President Trump, Jared Kushner, is now under scrutiny for his role during the campaign and transition. We have this all covered. Let's begin with CNN's Ryan Young in Bozeman, Montana, where we have a new Congressman just elected there, Ryan.</s>RYAN YOUNG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely, John. How tough is the question? What we saw here is sometimes it may lead to some physical kind of altercation. And of course, that didn't stop anything from happening. Twenty-four hours later, despite charges, there's a new Congressman in town. His name is Greg Gianforte.</s>GIANFORTE: Thank you, Montana.</s>YOUNG (voice-over): Just 24 hours after being charged with assaulting a reporter, Republican Greg Gianforte heading to Washington after winning a special election for Montana's open House seat. Gianforte directly addressing the shocking incident at his victory rally.</s>GREG GIANFORTE (R), MONTANA REPRESENTATIVE-ELECT: I'm sick and tired of you guys. The last guy that came in here, you did the same thing. Get the hell out of here! Get the hell out of here!</s>YOUNG: Apologizing both to his supporters and to the reporter that he allegedly body-slammed.</s>GIANFORTE: Last night I made a mistake, and I took an action that I can't take back. And I'm not proud of what happened. I should not have responded in the way that I did. And for that I'm sorry. I should not have treated that reporter that way. And for that, I'm sorry, Mr. Ben Jacobs.</s>YOUNG: Gianforte's apology coming after fellow Republicans on the Hill remained largely silent about the attack.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So I'm not sure exactly what happened.</s>YOUNG: Showing an unwillingness to condemn Gianforte's behavior.</s>REP. LOUIE GOHMERT (R), TEXAS: We didn't have a course on body- slamming when I went to school. I missed that course.</s>YOUNG: Some even pointing a finger at Democrats.</s>REP. TRENT FRANKS (R), ARIZONA: The left has precipitated this tense, confrontational approach throughout the country in recent months.</s>YOUNG: This despite audio evidence and eyewitness accounts from FOX News of the confrontation.</s>ALICIA ACUNA, CORRESPONDENT, FOX NEWS: Grabbed him with both hands, top of the body, both sides of the neck. Pulled him and then slammed him to the ground, got on top of him and started punching him.</s>YOUNG: House Speaker Paul Ryan conceding that an apology was appropriate after being pressed by reporters.</s>REP. PAUL RYAN (R-WI), SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: There is no time where a physical altercation should occur.</s>YOUNG: On the ground in Montana, some of Gianforte's supporters also seemingly unfazed by the assault charges.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A guy does one thing, that doesn't mean he's that way all the time.</s>YOUNG: Some even leveling their own hostile threats to a CNN reporter covering the story.</s>BEN JACOBS, REPORTER, "THE GUARDIAN": A healthy democratic process requires journalism. That's why the First Amendment is there.</s>YOUNG: We spent our day talking to people in the area. I talked to one woman with her child right next to her, saying, "Hey, what are we teaching our children?" Here, back in campaign headquarters, we talked to people who said, "Look, don't judge the man by one action." But a judge will, because of course, on June 7 he'll have to be in court before then. So we'll have to see what happens next. He'll face some more questions before then-- Alisyn.</s>CAMEROTA: I'm sure he will. Ryan, thank you very much for being on the ground there for us. The FBI probe into Russian election meddling is hitting close to home for President Trump. CNN has learned that investigators are now looking at the president's son-in-law and senior advisor, Jared Kushner. CNN's Joe Johns is live at the White House with that part of the story. What's the development, Joe?</s>JOE JOHNS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Alisyn. Jared Kushner has played many roles: the president's Mr. Fix-it, a member of the first family, and now he's the first person currently inside the Trump White House to come under scrutiny, though it's not believed he's a target of the Russia investigation.</s>JOHNS (voice-over): President Trump's son-in-law and most trusted adviser...</s>DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: He's very good at politics.</s>JOHNS: ... now a focus of the FBI's investigation into Russia's meddling in the 2016 election. Officials tell CNN the bureau is looking into a range of topics related to Kushner: a key campaign strategy, meetings held with Russian officials, and his relationship with now-ousted national security adviser Michael Flynn. There's no indication Kushner is currently a target of the probe and no allegation of wrongdoing. Of central interest, a data analytics operation supervised by Kushner that the Trump campaign used to micro-target voters in states that were critical to the president's victory. Investigators are examining whether Russian operatives were able to piggyback on that effort, with help from Trump associates, either wittingly or unwittingly, to help Russia's own alleged operation: to push information online aimed at helping Trump and hurting Hillary Clinton. Kushner is also one of four Trump associates and the only current White House staffer under scrutiny for having contact with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak. During the transition, Kushner met with both Kislyak and the head of a Russian bank that is currently sanctioned by the U.S. and has close ties to Vladimir Putin.</s>SEAN SPICER, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: Jared did a job during the transition and the campaign where he was a conduit into -- to leaders.</s>JOHNS: Meetings Kushner prematurely left off filed security clearance forms, omissions he rectified a day later.</s>SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R), SOUTH CAROLINA: The fact he met with the banker, I think he needs to explain himself.</s>JOHNS: Kushner's lawyer, responding in a statement Wednesday, noting that Kushner "previously volunteered to share with Congress what he knows about these meetings. He will do the same if he is contacted in connection with any other inquiry." Another point of inquiry, Kushner's relationship with Flynn. According to a source, Kushner and his wife, Ivanka, pushed the president to fire Flynn after the election. But a source close to Kushner disputes this account.</s>JOHNS: It's not clear if the FBI plans to talk to Kushner, but investigators believe he would be able to help provide information to assist the probe. And the spokesperson said Kushner was unaware of the FBI's interest, and the bureau hasn't contacted him -- John and Alisyn.</s>CAMEROTA: OK, Joe. Thank you very much for all of that. Let's discuss it. We want to bring in our political panel. We have CNN political analysts David Gregory; CNN counterterrorism analyst Phil Mudd and associate editor and columnist for Real Clear Politics, A.B. Stoddard. David Gregory, this is the first time we've learned that this federal investigation doesn't just cover the campaign and Donald Trump's then- campaign advisers. Now it reaches into the White House. What's the significance?</s>DAVID GREGORY, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, just that last point. It reaches into the White House. Jared Kushner has emerged as, arguably, the president's most important adviser who is also family, whose authority goes in multiple directions and who has business interests that raise real questions on behalf of the Trump family that could have made the campaign vulnerable to being compromised by the Russians. And again, we don't know what all the facts are, so we'll wait for an investigation. And we know through Kushner's attorney that he's happy to talk to all investigators. But I think we can make a broader point right now about the attitude of vulnerability, kind of cavalier attitude by the Trump campaign that, well, Russia is not going to do anything to us. Or there's something to be concerned about here. Obviously, there is. And Kushner appears to be the person who's had enough contact, had enough meetings or knows enough to be able to really help investigators. Or, though he's not a target, as far as we know right now, that can always change. But he seems to be in a position to help investigators find out where some of the vulnerability was, particularly because he was responsible for a lot of the data and the analytics of the campaign, which is where breaches could have occurred.</s>BERMAN: Phil Mudd, we can tell by the serious look on your face that you have been involved in investigations. Perhaps not quite like this but investigations. What does it mean that they're focusing on Jared Kushner, but he's not a target. And as of now, there are no allegations of wrongdoing in that last part that David Gregory just brought up, the fact that now we have learned that the data operation that he ran during the campaign could be one area where they want to question.</s>PHIL MUDD, CNN COUNTERTERRORISM ANALYST: Let's take two pieces of this. The first piece is, look, there has been an investigation under way since last summer. Jared Kushner, obviously deeply involved with the campaign, close to the president, close to some of the people we've discussed about -- we've discussed for months, including General Flynn, and he's met with the Russians. The surprise here, John, would be if he was never of interest in the investigation. So yes, this has come into the White House. But Kushner, obviously, is going to be questioned by -- at some point by the FBI. One other quick point on why he hasn't been questioned yet. I've been questioned in investigations before. I've watched investigations. When the bureau walks into the room, they don't want to walk in without knowing the answers. They want to know where he traveled, where his money is from, what other people at the periphery of the investigation say about his involvement. Because when they walk in the door and ask him questions, half the time they're going to know the answer. He's not going to know what they know, and they want to see what he says. They want to box him. So I wouldn't expect to see him questioned early on, because they're collecting a ton of data about him before they walk through the door.</s>CAMEROTA: A.B., when I hear the term "data analytics," I fall right asleep. But this, it is very fascinating. If you dive into what Jared Kushner was able to accomplish during the election, he was instrumental in helping President Trump win. He figured out through, I guess, social media, and sales of Donald Trump merchandise, like the "Make America Great" caps, that there was a vulnerability in that Democrats' Great Blue Wall, and that it could crumble. And then he sent Donald Trump there to Michigan, as we know, and sure enough, it worked. So explain how it's possible there was a nexus with the Russians' data program and that they might have piggybacked on what Jared Kushner was doing?</s>A.B. STODDARD, COLUMNIST/ASSOCIATE EDITOR, REAL CLEAR POLITICS: Right. I think Jared and the team lucked into a way to use that data to realize that Wisconsin and Michigan, instead of becoming, you know, automatically becoming blue states on November 8, were fertile ground for Trump by seeing the number of hats and T-shirts and things they were selling. And they decided, wow, this is a place where we target our resources and our social media campaign to try to boost Trump and depress the Hillary vote. And so in the end, it was very helpful, obviously, on the ground to the campaign, in addition to just sort of being a savvy operation. Where it comes into connection with a Russian data operation -- of course, we know the Russians were doing their own, you know, campaign across social media to -- to promote negative Hillary stories, positive Trump stories. But, you know, whether or not the data analytics operation that Jared was helping run became a partner with the Russians and their data operation, willingly or unwillingly. Perhaps they were hacked into, and then it's sort of an unwilling collusion. You know, we're yet to find that out. That sounds -- it sounds, you know, obviously like a very dramatic question. But it is the thing that would be -- it makes sense in terms of the question of collusion. You know, what was Michael Flynn doing with the Russians if people suspect him of collusion? The data operation seems to make the most sense if there's actual evidence of collusion.</s>BERMAN: Phil, very quickly, how can you be unwittingly influenced in a data operation. We keep hearing the word "unwittingly" influenced by the Russians. How could that be?</s>MUDD: Look, you're not going to walk through the front door to somebody and say, "Would you like to be someone that works for the Russian intelligence service?" You can ask them pretty simple questions. "Hey, this campaign process is really interesting. Help me understand what are the places," as A.B. was talking about, "where Hillary Clinton might be vulnerable." And obviously, that might influence the Russian campaign. So you see this countless times in the spy business. It's not just about recruiting people who know they're working for you. It's recruiting people who don't. And that's an easier path to get somebody to give you information that's important to an intelligence operation.</s>CAMEROTA: David Gregory, from Russia to Montana. The candidate who was caught on audio tape and by eyewitnesses, assaulting a reporter, won in that election. He is now going to Congress. What are we to make of what happened with Greg Gianforte?</s>GREGORY: Well, it didn't have an impact. Now, whether that's because voters who showed up yesterday, weighed this and thought it wasn't important enough to -- to punish him and vote against him, or because of the absentee process where so many votes had already come in via absentee ballot that can't be changed that tilted it in his way. I don't think we can know ever for certain how that shakes out. I thought Gianforte's apology was appropriate. I thought it was late. I'm surprised he waited until after the election. It has the appearance of looking like he just wanted to see how it went first and didn't want to hurt himself by apologizing, which I think is unfortunate. But you know, he did the right thing. And he's still going to face a misdemeanor assault charge in court, as well, which is completely appropriate. This is -- this is outrageous to attack a reporter asking a question. And it shows that he's not ready for primetime if he wants to be a Congressman who wants to be dealing with policy. You know, you have the House speaker, Paul Ryan, who I think, spoke about this appropriately. He said this had never happened. Obviously. I mean, there are so many obvious points about this. And I think it's just so unfortunate that you have people out there who want to rationalize it in some way or condone it in some way. Again, you know, this is not a man who should be judged by a big mistake that he made here for everybody to see. And that's why I think his apology is important, and people move on. But don't try to rationalize it or to suggest that the left has created some atmosphere. It's ridiculous.</s>CAMEROTA: Panel, thank you very much. Nice to see all of you. So committees in Congress are widening their own Russian investigations, but are members happy with the progress? We hear from members on both sides coming up.