with a bank that is under sanction from the united states. all this means that kushner will answer questions from senators that are investigating ties between alleged ties between the trump campaign and russian operatives. the white house, for its part, trying to downplay it. jared did a job during the transition in the campaign where he was a conduit in to leaders, and that s until we had a state department, a function place for people to go. remember we had a delay in some of these things, and that was his role. cnn senior international correspondent fred pleitgen is joining us from moscow now with more. let s just begin with what we know about this bank, veb bank, and this banker that kushner met with. reporter: well, both the bank and sergey gorkov, the chairman of the bank, are very, very close to the highest power circles in russia, especially vladimir putin. he reportedly met with kushner