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POLITICS

Trump Returns to Crisis Over

Kushner as White House Tries to
Contain It
By MAGGIE HABERMAN, GLENN THRUSH and JULIE HIRSCHFELD DAVIS MAY 27, 2017

President Trump headed home on Saturday to confront a growing political and

legal threat, as his top aides tried to contain the fallout from reports that his son-
in-law, Jared Kushner, is a focus of investigations into possible collusion between
Russia and the presidents campaign and transition teams.

As Mr. Trump ended a nine-day overseas trip that aides considered the most
successful stretch of his presidency, he was returning to a crisis that had only
grown in his absence. The White House canceled a presidential trip to Iowa in the
coming days and was putting together a damage-control plan to expand the
presidents legal team, reorganize his communications staff and wall off a scandal
that has jeopardized his agenda and now threatens to engulf his family.

Mr. Trumps private legal team, led by his New York lawyer, Marc E. Kasowitz,
was preparing to meet in Washington to face fresh questions about contacts
between Mr. Kushner and representatives of President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia.
The president may meet with Mr. Kasowitz as early as Sunday, and aides have
recruited a series of prominent Washington lawyers with experience in political
investigations for Mr. Trump to interview in hopes that they might join the legal
team.

Mr. Kushner, who organized the presidents Middle East stops at the start of
the foreign trip, chose to return to Washington with several days yet to go and has
been unusually subdued since then. But he has no plans to step down from his role
as senior adviser or to reduce his duties, according to people close to him.

Still, there are signs that he is tiring of the nonstop combat and the damage to his
reputation. He has told friends that he and his wife have made no long-term
commitment to remain by Mr. Trumps side, saying they would review every six
months whether to return to private life in New York.

Mr. Kushners troubles are only one facet of the crisis. Reince Priebus, the
White House chief of staff, and Stephen K. Bannon, the presidents chief strategist,
also dropped off Mr. Trumps trip early, in part to return to deal with the political
furor over the Russia investigations and the presidents decision to fire James B.
Comey as F.B.I. director.

The White House was trying to figure out how to respond to reports that Mr.
Kushner had spoken in December with Russias ambassador, Sergey I. Kislyak,
about establishing a secret channel between his father-in-laws transition team and
Moscow to discuss the war in Syria and other issues. The Washington Post first
reported on the suggestion on Friday, and three people informed about it
confirmed it to The New York Times.

The discussion took place at Trump Tower at a meeting that also included
Michael T. Flynn, who served briefly as Mr. Trumps national security adviser until
being forced out when it was revealed that he had misled Vice President Mike
Pence and others about a separate telephone conversation he had with Mr. Kislyak.
It was unclear who first proposed the secret communications channel, but the idea
was for Mr. Flynn to speak directly with a Russian military official. The channel
was never set up.

As reports emerged about investigators focus on Mr. Kushner, he and his wife,
Ivanka Trump, discussed the possibility of having Donald F. McGahn II, the White
House counsel, issue a statement denying that Mr. McGahn had been contacted by
federal officials about Mr. Kushner. Mr. McGahn, who has been increasingly
uneasy in his role since Mr. Trump ignored his advice to delay Mr. Comeys
dismissal, said he was not the person to write such a statement, suggesting that
doing so would create a precedent requiring a response to each new report. Mr.
Kushners private lawyer issued a statement instead.
 Ms. Trump and Mr. Kushner have complained privately about what he views
as an unfair level of scrutiny of his actions. He has dismissed the attention on him
as a reflection of his father-in-laws unconventional approach to diplomacy and
inexperience in government, rather than anything nefarious he has done. People
close to Mr. Kushner were adamant on Saturday that he was preparing for a long
fight and not an exit from the White House.

The reports about Mr. Kushner dominated an end-of-trip briefing for

reporters in Taormina, Italy, where Lt. Gen. H. R. McMaster, the presidents
national security adviser, and Gary D. Cohn, his national economics adviser,
declined to comment specifically on Mr. Kushner but sought to play down the
significance of the disclosures.

We have back-channel communications with any number of countries,

General McMaster said. So, generally speaking, about back-channel
communications, what that allows you to do is to communicate in a discreet
manner. It doesnt predispose you to any kind of content in that conversation.

He did not say whether he was comfortable with the idea of a private citizen,
as Mr. Kushner was at the time, opening such a back channel.

Behind the scenes, Mr. Trumps advisers were working to create a crisis-
control communications operation within the White House to separate the Russia
investigations and related scandals from the administrations day-to-day themes
and the work of governing, according to several people familiar with their plans
and who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to
divulge the details of a still-evolving strategy.

The goal, these people said, was to give Mr. Trump more outlets for
communicating his message in an unvarnished way, while curbing opportunities
for aides to be confronted publicly with damaging developments or unflattering
story lines.

White House aides were trying to assemble a powerhouse outside legal team
that they hoped would include seasoned Washington lawyers of the stature of Paul
D. Clement, Theodore Olson or Brendan Sullivan, and they planned to introduce
some of them to Mr. Trump as soon as this weekend. More lawyers could also be
hired onto the White House staff to help Mr. McGahn.

The approach is modeled on the war room used by President Bill Clinton
during various inquiries, including one that led to his impeachment for lying under
oath about his affair with Monica Lewinsky. Mr. Clinton retained a private legal
team and established a separate office to handle questions about investigations, so
that the White House could preserve the image of governing and keep its primary
focus on the presidents broader message.

Aides are talking about bringing Corey Lewandowski, Mr. Trumps former
campaign manager, and David Bossie, his former deputy campaign manager, onto
the White House staff to manage the war room.

Under the evolving scenario, Sean Spicer, the White House press secretary,
would take a diminished public role, with daily on-camera briefings replaced by
more limited interactions with journalists, while Mr. Trump would seize more
opportunities to communicate directly with his core supporters through campaign
rallies, social media appearances such as Facebook Live videos, and interviews
with friendly news media outlets.

The president, who has more than 30 million followers on Twitter, has been
told by his lawyers to limit his posts. Each one, they argue privately, could be used
as evidence in a legal case against him, and the president went through his entire
overseas trip without posting a single incendiary message.

Among those most adamant about limiting Mr. Trumps access to the news
media was Mr. Kushner, who has been critical internally of the White House press
operation and has sought to marginalize Mr. Spicer, whom he views as too
undisciplined to control the presidents message. Mr. Kushner has also favored
creating a rapid-response team to counter reports like the ones that emerged on
Friday.

In a move that many in the West Wing viewed as emblematic of his attempt to
wrest control of communications from Mr. Spicer and Mr. Priebus, Mr. Kushner
displaced an operations official from the office across the hall from his own and
installed his personal spokesman, Josh Raffel, in his place, according to two people
familiar with the matter.
 Mr. Trumps sons Don Jr. and Eric have grown frustrated by the lack of a solid
support system or effective surrogate operation to combat the spate of negative
reports, according to three people who have spoken with them. The sons spent
Thursday at the Republican National Committee headquarters, and they had a
discussion with at least one Republican operative about beefing up
communications at the campaign committee. The meeting was first reported by
The Post.

Republican strategists said it was vital for Mr. Trump to focus on advancing a
legislative agenda to show voters that the administration could deliver policy
changes and allay lawmakers simmering fears that the presidents troubles could
damage their re-election chances.

What they need to do is crank up the legislative side of things and say, O.K.,
thats going on, and Trumps going to be Trump, but meanwhile, theyre actually
working to get some kind of health care plan through the Senate, some kind of tax
reform, and do what they promised they would, said Rich Galen, a top adviser to
Newt Gingrich when he was the House speaker during Mr. Clintons tenure.

Yet Mr. Trumps push to revamp health care has faltered in Congress, and the
White House has yet to present a detailed plan for his promised tax cuts.

Joel Johnson, who was a top adviser to Mr. Clinton, said the traditional
options available to a besieged president returning from overseas would be
delivering a major speech, shaking up his staff and getting out on the road. But he
said it was unclear whether Mr. Trump could do any of those things effectively
enough to recapture control of his own narrative.

Youre always looking for a reset button and how do we change the
conversation, Mr. Johnson said. I wouldnt want to be running the program
down there right now. I dont know where they go.

Maggie Haberman reported from New York, and Glenn Thrush and Julie Hirschfeld
Davis from Washington. Peter Baker contributed reporting from Washington, and Mark
Landler from Taormina, Italy.
 2017 The New York Times Company