A Russian banker who met with President Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner did not do so under orders from Moscow, a Kremlin spokesman said on Tuesday.
“These contacts do no need any approval from the Kremlin and naturally (these meetings) did not happen on the Kremlin’s orders,” President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
Kushner, who appeared on Monday before a Senate panel investigating the Kremlin’s involvement in the 2016 election, admitted meeting Sergei Gorkov, the head of Russian state-owned Vnesheconombank in December.
He said the meeting had been set up by Russian ambassador Sergei Kislyak.
Peskov said Gorkov had been meeting with US representatives as part of his work.
It was “normal practice,” he said.
Kushner, in a statement on Monday, said he “did not collude with Russians, nor do I know of anyone in the campaign who did.”
He is expected to appear before the House Intelligence Committee on Tuesday.
