By Kanishka Singh
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner was among several witnesses to testify before a grand jury in recent weeks about the former president’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election, the New York Times reported on Thursday, citing sources.
Testifying at a federal courthouse in Washington last month, Kushner, a former White House adviser to Trump, said it was his impression Trump truly believed the 2020 election was stolen, the Times reported, citing a person briefed on the matter.
Special Counsel Jack Smith was appointed by U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland last November to take over two Justice Department investigations involving Trump.
In one case, Trump was indicted over his handling of classified documents after leaving the White House in January 2021. He pleaded not guilty. The second is an investigation into efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 U.S. election that the Republican Trump lost to Democrat Joe Biden.
A spokesperson for Smith’s office declined to comment on the New York Times report. A representative for Kushner could not immediately be reached for comment.
Trump, the front-runner in the race for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, faces other legal problems. Prosecutors in New York City charged him in April in a case involving an alleged 2016 hush-money payment to a porn star.
Trump has repeatedly and falsely claimed that he won the 2020 election and that Biden’s win resulted from fraud. Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, in a failed bid to stop Congress from certifying Biden’s win.
(Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Washington; Editing by Caitlin Webber and Howard Goller)
