Democrat reiterates doubts about Jared Kushner's loyalty to the U.S.
Rep. Ted Lieu, D-Calif., a member of the House Judiciary Committee, said he was “absolutely” impugning Jared Kushner’s patriotism when he tweeted Wednesday that “we don’t know where his loyalties lie” — whether to America or “bailing out his and his family’s debts.”
“It’s one of the reasons he can’t get a high-level security clearance,” Lieu said in an interview on Yahoo News’ podcast, Skullduggery, when asked about his tweet questioning Kushner’s loyalty.
“He has a web of financial arrangements. He has mounting debts — both to himself and his family. He refuses to answer a very simple question from Congress. I wrote him a letter over two months ago, we asked him to answer this basic question: Did you talk to any foreign nationals about 666 Fifth Avenue [the family owned property that has been heavily in debt]?”
Listen to Episode 8: Ted Lieu questions Jared Kushner’s loyalty to the U.S.
“And he can’t answer that simple question. What we have here is a person who is subject to blackmail risk — or he is doing his job with these conflicts of interest that are so massive that anybody who, but for [being] the son-in-law of the president, would have been fired long ago.”
Lieu also said “the evidence is absolutely there to have a discussion on impeachment.” Asked about the prospect that Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee will initiate impeachment proceedings if they regain control of the House this November, Lieu replied much depends on special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation. But “there is no question in my mind that the president has obstructed justice,” Lieu said, citing the president’s firing of FBI Director James Comey, followed by his televised admission a few days later that he did it because of the “Russia investigation.”
Download or subscribe on iTunes: Skullduggery by Yahoo News
Lieu also said that an impeachment resolution could also charge Trump with “conspiracy” if Mueller finds evidence that members of his campaign had advance knowledge of Russian plans to dump emails embarrassing to Hillary Clinton.
As a former prosecutor, Lieu said he was trained to detect signs of guilt by suspects. “The actions of Donald Trump just look like consciousness of guilt all the time. He writes these desperate-sounding tweets about the investigation. If this investigation was truly a hoax, why would he try to obstruct it at every turn?”
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