"It comes back to the point: I haven't seen anything that leads me to believe that there was any wrongdoing by Jared Kushner or by the Trump campaign," Duffy told CNN. "I haven't seen that evidence yet, and there's a lot of speculation."
Duffy pointed out that Kushner should have disclosed his contacts Russian officials, but that the fact that he decided against it does not indicate any nefarious purposes.
On Friday, the Washington Post reported that Kushner and former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn met with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak last December to discuss setting up a secure communication channel to shield pre-inauguration talks from US intelligence eavesdropping.
Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly defended Kushner on Saturday, telling NBC that back-channel communication is not uncommon and that he did not see any big issue here relative to Kushner.
National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster also told reporters over the weekend that Washington maintains back-channel communications with officials in a number of foreign nations, and that the method allows for discreet communication.
