US federal investigators are looking into whether Jared Kushner's business talks with foreigners, as his father-in-law Donald Trump assumed the presidency, later influenced White House policy, NBC News reports.
Special Counsel Robert Mueller asked witnesses about Kushner's attempts to secure financing for his family's real estate ventures, focusing specifically on his talks with people from Qatar and Turkey, as well as Russia, China and the United Arab Emirates, NBC News said.
NBC cited unnamed people familiar with Mueller's investigation, as well as witnesses who had been interviewed by Mueller's team.
The special counsel is looking at Russia's alleged meddling in the 2016 US election and whether there was any collusion with the Trump campaign.
A spokesman for Kushner lawyer Abbe Lowell said the report was the "mischief" of unnamed sources conducting a "misinformation campaign" to mislead the news media.
Russia has denied interfering in the election, and Trump has said there was no collusion.
Muller's team also has expressed interest in a meeting Kushner held at Trump Tower in December 2016 with former Qatari Prime Minister Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber al Thani, people familiar with the meeting told NBC News.
After the collapse of talks between Qatar and the Kushner Companies, the White House strongly backed a blockade against Qatar by Saudi Arabia and the UAE, which accused Qatar of backing terrorism. Kushner has played a major role in Middle East policy.
The Washington Post reported earlier this week that officials from the UAE, China, Israel and Mexico have talked privately about ways to manipulate Kushner using his business arrangements, financial difficulties and lack of foreign policy experience.
The Post report quoted unnamed US officials familiar with intelligence reports on the issue.
Kushner has lost his access to top-secret US intelligence information in recent weeks because of his inability to obtain a security clearance at that level.
