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Groton Daily Independent
Tuesday, July 25, 2017 ~ Vol. 25 - No. 025 ~ 26 of 38
Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton.
Emails released this month show that the president’s son, Donald Trump Jr., accepted the meeting with
the idea that he would receive information as part of a Russian government effort to help Trump’s cam- paign. But Kushner said he hadn’t seen those emails until recently shown them by his lawyers.
He called the June 2016 Trump Tower meeting with Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya such a “waste of time” that he asked his assistant to call him out of the gathering. He says he arrived late and when he heard the lawyer discussing the issue of international adoptions, he texted his assistant to call him out.
“No part of the meeting I attended included anything about the campaign; there was no follow-up to the meeting that I am aware of; I do not recall how many people were there (or their names), and I have no knowledge of any documents being offered or accepted,” he said.
Kushner also con rmed earlier media reports that he had suggested using Russian diplomatic facilities to set up secure communications between Trump adviser Michael Flynn, who would become Trump’s national security adviser, and Russian of cials. But he disputed that it was an effort to establish a “secret back channel.”
His statement describes a December meeting with Flynn and Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak in which Kushner and Kislyak discussed establishing a secure line for the Trump transition team and Moscow to communicate about policy in Syria.
Kushner said that when Kislyak asked if there was a secure way for him to provide information from his “generals,” Kushner suggested using facilities at the Russian Embassy.
“The ambassador said that would not be possible and so we all agreed that we would receive this infor- mation after the Inauguration. Nothing else occurred,” the statement said.
Kushner said he never proposed an ongoing secret form of communication.
He also acknowledged meeting with a Russian banker, Sergey Gorkov, at the request of Kislyak but said no speci c policies were discussed.
As for his application for a security clearance, Kushner said his form was submitted prematurely due to a miscommunication with his assistant, who had believed the document was complete.
He said he mistakenly omitted all of his foreign contacts, not just his meetings with Russians, and has worked in the past six months with the FBI to correct the record.
Meyer has Ohio State running like Fortune 500 juggernaut By JIM LITKE, AP Sports Writer
CHICAGO (AP) — The tailored, slate-gray suit, the scarlet and gray power tie, the blacked-out chrono- graph on his wrist — if you didn’t know Urban Meyer was the football coach at Ohio State, your rst guess would be a Fortune 500 CEO.
That’s hardly a coincidence.
After ve seasons in Columbus, Meyer has the Buckeyes running as smoothly as any business enterprise in the land. He’s won a third national championship there (to go along with two from Florida), a confer- ence title and two division titles, and Ohio State is favored to return to the top of the Big Ten heap and compete for another college football crown.
All that despite getting smoked 31-0 by Clemson in the playoffs last season, then watching ve players depart in the rst round (and a dozen total) in the NFL draft.
“It’s in the back of everyone’s mind, and whether I’ll use that during training camp or not is to be de- termined,” Meyer said about that season-ending loss during Monday’s session at the Big Ten media days. “But where we’re at as a team, I like where we’re at. So we’re just pushing forward.”
Pushing forward?
Like Kentucky basketball — another well-oiled sports juggernaut — Ohio State doesn’t rebuild, it simply reloads.
Last season, Meyer had three rookies in the defensive back eld, the same number he wound up losing to the pros. This time around, the quarterback competition will be limited to who’s backing up J.T. Barrett. But