Kushner Friend Worked With Putin Deputy on 'Reconciliation' Plan

A friend of Jared Kushner developed a “reconciliation plan” for the U.S. and Russia with a Vladimir Putin deputy and gave it to President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, who circulated it to other top Trump officials.

Kushner, a senior adviser to the president, received a copy of the proposal after the 2016 election and gave it to Trump’s chief strategist at the time, Steve Bannon, and incoming Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Special Counsel Robert Mueller said.

The activities by Kushner and his friend, hedge fund manager Rick Gerson, do not appear to have been previously reported.

Kirill Dmitriev, the chief executive officer of Russia’s sovereign wealth fund, was among several people close to Putin who sought “to make inroads” with Trump’s incoming administration following his election, Mueller said. Those efforts were encouraged at “the most senior levels of the Russian government,” Mueller wrote in his report to Attorney General William Barr.

The national security adviser for the United Arab Emirates introduced Dmitriev to Gerson, the chairman of Falcon Edge Capital, in late November 2016. The two men then collaborated on a “short written reconciliation plan” for the U.S. and Russia that Dmitriev “implied had been cleared through Putin.”

Gerson gave the plan to Kushner, who then shared it with Bannon and Tillerson, Mueller said. Kushner told the special counsel that neither man followed up with him about the plan.

While Gerson had no formal role in Trump’s campaign or presidential transition, he helped arrange meetings between transition officials and former U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair and a UAE delegation led by Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Zayed, Mueller said.