Trump slams leaks as fake news following Kushner reports

WASHINGTON — United States President Donald Trump said yesterday that many of the leaks from the White House were “fake news”, following reports that his son-in-law Jared Kushner had tried to set up a secret channel of communications with Moscow before Mr Trump took office.

“It is my opinion that many of the leaks coming out of the White House are fabricated lies made up by the #FakeNews media,” Mr Trump wrote in a series of Twitter posts yesterday.

Mr Trump returned to the White House after a nine-day trip to the Middle East and Europe that ended on Saturday to face more questions about alleged communications between Mr Kushner and Russia’s ambassador to Washington, Mr Sergey Kislyak.

Mr Kushner, who is married to Mr Trump’s daughter Ivanka, had contact with Moscow in December about opening a secret backchannel of communications, according to news reports published while Mr Trump was away on his trip.

“Whenever you see the words ‘sources say’ in the fake news media, and they don’t mention names ... it is very possible that those sources don’t exist but are made up by fake news writers. #FakeNews is the enemy!” Mr Trump wrote.

Mr Trump’s tweets came as the media reported that the White House was preparing to establish a “war room” to combat mounting questions about ties between Russia and his presidential campaign.

The White House cancelled a presidential trip to Iowa in the coming days and was putting together a damage-control plan to expand the president’s legal team, reorganise his communications staff, and manage a scandal that has jeopardised his agenda and may now engulf his family.

Mr Trump’s private legal team, led by his New York lawyer, Mr Marc Kasowitz, was preparing to meet in Washington to face new questions about contact between Mr Kushner and representatives of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Mr Kushner, who organised the president’s Middle East stops at the start of the foreign trip, chose to return to Washington with several days yet to go, and has been unusually subdued since then.

However, he has no plans to step down from his role as senior adviser or to reduce his duties, according to people close to him.

The allegations dominated an end-of-trip briefing for reporters in Taormina, Italy, where Mr H R McMaster, the President’s national security adviser, and Mr Gary Cohn, his top economic adviser, declined to comment specifically on Mr Kushner but sought to play down the significance of the disclosures.

Mr McMaster noted that the so-called “backchannelling” was normal.

“We have backchannel communications with any number of individual (countries),” he said.

“So generally speaking, about backchannel communications, what that allows you to do is communicate in a discreet manner.

“It doesn’t pre-expose you to any sort of content or any kind of conversation or anything. So we’re not concerned about it.” AGENCIES