Senate panel removes Kushner deadline to turn over documents

Nov. 27 (UPI) -- The Senate Judiciary Committee removed a deadline for senior White House adviser Jared Kushner to turn over documents relating to WikiLeaks and Russian contacts with the Trump campaign, his lawyer said.

"Mr. Kushner's counsel and staff from both the majority and minority spoke last week to go over the Committee's requests and a schedule for producing additional information," Lowell said in a statement. "There is no current deadline as both the Committee and Mr. Kushner's counsel are working in good faith to produce whatever else may be responsive and relevant to the Committee's inquiry."

Kushner, the son-in-law of President Donald Trump, originally was given a Monday deadline by Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley of Iowa and ranking member Dianne Feinstein of California to turn over relevant documents. The senators had said they might issue a subpoena if Kushner doesn't comply.

A new deadline was not immediately set.

A Grassley spokesman confirmed by email to Politico that the committee didn't expect to receive the materials Monday. "However, Mr. Kushner's attorney is cooperating with the committee and we are in ongoing discussions to address the committee's requests," the spokesman said.

On Nov. 16, Grassley of Iowa and Feinstein sent a letter to Lowell seeking additional documents from his client as part of the committee's investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election.

The two senators said they received emails from "other parties" that Kushner received and forwarded comminications about WikiLeaks as well a "Russian backdoor overture and dinner invite."

They first requested documents on Oct. 18 and received some on Nov. 3, which the senators said "appears to have been incomplete."

Lowell wrote to Feinstein and Grassley that he expressed his "surprise and disappointment" in learning about the letter from reporters, which he called a "media event."

He said that the documents were "not missing at all" and the same material was given to the House and Senate Intelligence Committees for their investigations.

During the presidential campaign, Kushner and Donald Trump Jr. attended a meeting in Trump Tower in New York with a Russian lawyer who claimed to have damaging information about Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.

Lowell also said that Kushner "had no contacts" with WikiLeaks, which released emails and other documents from the Democratic National Committee and from Clinton's campaign manager, John Podesta.