Senior White House advisor Jared Kushner said Monday he had contacts with Russian officials four times but denied any collusion to help his father-in-law Donald Trump win the presidency, US media reported.

Kushner described contacts made during the 2016 campaign with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak and other Russians as routine, in a statement published by the New York Times.

It came hours before Kushner will testify before the Senate intelligence committee as part of the probe into alleged Russian meddling in last year’s US presidential vote.

The sprawling investigation has plagued the White House since the president took office, with many influential members of Trump’s team having failed to report their contacts with Russian officials.

“I did not collude, nor know of anyone else in the campaign who colluded, with any foreign government,” Kushner wrote.

“I had no improper contacts. I have not relied on Russian funds to finance my business activities in the private sector,” Kushner said in the 11-page statement to be submitted for the record.

Kushner, married to Trump’s eldest daughter Ivanka, will testify in closed-door meetings before the Senate intelligence committee on Monday, according to his lawyer, and the House panel on Tuesday.

The 36-year-old, working in his first political position, was to be asked about meetings with Russia’s ambassador to Washington, the head of a major Russian bank and a Russian lawyer — the latter along with Trump’s son Donald Jr.

In his statement Kushner said the meeting — which Donald Jr had taken hoping to get dirt on his father’s rival Hillary Clinton — was a “waste of time.”

Special counsel and former FBI director Robert Mueller is leading the investigation into possible collusion. The House and Senate, however, have organized separate probes.

Source: AFP