surpassed them all. and jared s life was once more going to take a startling turn. i will bring it back. bigger and better and stronger than ever before. the 34-year-old kushner soon swept up in donald trump s bare-bones campaign. it was such a seat of his pants operation. donald trump didn t have a lot of people on staff. jared was someone who was able to get involved. he was willing to do the legwork. this was an opportunity of a lifetime that anyone would kill for. especially a highly ambitious, incredibly driven person. kushner was a member of the northeast elite now he was traveling to working-class towns and meeting people far removed from his privileged circles. she s very tough by the way, i have to tell you, right, jared? and jared is a great young man,
we can on the areas we care about and that s really how we judge ourselves. but even as kushner began his new role in the white house. law enforcement officials were raising questions about his activities during the transition period. during the presidential transition jared kushner met with a very high-ranking russian banker who has ties to the kremlin. was it appropriate for to you meet with the russian officials? and it was not just the banker. in december 20 16 kushner, along with trump adviser michael flynn, met secretly with russian ambassador sergey kislyak inside trump tower. under discussion was a plan to set up a back-door communication channel between the trump team and moscow. that would go through the russian embassy. if you look at this pattern, a meeting with the kremlin-aligned lawyer. a meeting with kremlin-aligned banker and an offer to use russian communications equipment, to talk to moscow, that raises a lot of questions about really why jared seemed to be
kushner would later testify about these meetings in closed-door sessions in the house. the city for robert mueller. he also gave a rare public statement. dy not collude with russia, nor do i know of anyone else in the campaign who did so. i had no improper contacts and i have been fully transparent in providing all requested information. jared, how did you not know about the donald trump jr. meeting when the subject line said clinton/russia confidential? jared probably had, i don t know, 40 or 50 contacts during the transition period with countries all over the world and his approach was always the same. this is a new administration, we re going to start over and look to see how our relations go. despite the investigation, kushner developed a reputation in washington as a way into the trump white house. i think he s a go-to person for a lot of people. people know that he communicate
influence, particularly when you have these types of assets. and the lack of transparency with respect to them. kushnerner s attorney has said that jared had stayed well within the ethical guidelines. he is acutely aware of when any holding might or or might n port foe owe in government service and staying clear to have it. if we re to the point where we re going to demand people who come into government and blind trust. we ll lose a lot of talent. one could make the argument don t you want great talented people to work in the government? sure. but only if they re truly conflict free. in a sign of just how much they still had invested, jared and invan ka reported making $82 million during the first year in the white house. he has holdings. when those appreciate and somebody in the world of his investments sell that asset, if
line of clothing and accessories and kushner invested heavily in debt companies. he helped fund raise hundreds of thousands for start-ups and it was clear that he had a pretty incredible network. jared s rolo dex was massive. he knew people. and people liked him. meanwhile kushner companies had grown no a diverse real estate conglomerate. jared brought the company into trendy brooklyn neighborhoods and there was much more. they went on a buying spree. they were buying all kinds of different properties. seemed to be everywhere at once. but there was a threat on the horizon. that overpriced building, 666 fifth avenue and the $1.2 billion debt that was coming due. the building that made their entree into new york and it was a building for a while threatened the entire business. coming up he got everybody in line.