Trump blasts media over Kushner's alleged ties with Russia

US President Donald Trump on Sunday attacked news reports based on unidentified sources as phony and dismissed leaks from the White House as "fake news," following reports about his son-in-law tried to set up a secret channel of communications with Moscow before Trump took office.

Trump returned to the White House after a nine-day trip to West Asia and Europe that ended on Saturday to face more questions about alleged communications between Jared Kushner and Russia's ambassador to Washington.

"It is my opinion that many of the leaks coming out of the White House are fabricated lies made up by the #FakeNews media," Trump wrote in a series of Twitter posts on Sunday.

Shortly after the tweets, Trump's Homeland Security Secretary, John Kelly, made the rounds of Sunday television news shows to praise any so-called back channel communications, especially with Russia, as "a good thing." The White House faces mounting questions about potential ties between Russia and Trump's presidential campaign, which are also the subject of criminal and congressional investigations.

Trump officials were preparing to establish a "war room" to address an issue that has begun to dominate his young presidency.

Two Republican US senators played down the Kushner reports on Sunday, while the former director of national intelligence, James Clapper, took a darker view of such contacts with representatives of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

"My dashboard warning light was clearly on and I think that was the case with all of us in the intelligence community — very concerned about the nature of these approaches to the Russians," Clapper told NBC's "Meet The Press".

Kushner, who is married to Trump's daughter Ivanka, had contacts with Moscow in December about opening a secret back channel of communications, according to news reports published while Trump was away on his trip.

The 36-year-old Kushner, a real estate developer with no previous government experience, had at least three previously undisclosed contacts with the Russian ambassador to the United States during and after the 2016 presidential campaign, seven current and former US officials told Reuters.

"Whenever you see the words 'sources say' in the fake news media, and they don't mention names," Trump wrote, "it is very possible that those sources don't exist but are made up by fake news writers. #FakeNews is the enemy!"

Contacts between Trump associates and Russian officials during the campaign coincided with what US intelligence agencies concluded was a Kremlin effort through computer hacking, fake news and propaganda to boost Trump's chances of winning the White House.

White House officials defended the concept of secret communications channels without commenting specifically on the Kushner case. National security adviser HR McMaster told reporters on Saturday that so-called back-channelling was not unusual.

Kelly, the homeland security secretary, carried the same message on Sunday.

Reuters