Posted May 29, 2017 06:23:41

Photo: Jared Kushner (R) is accused of trying to set up a secret communication channel with Moscow. (AP: Pablo Martinez Monsivais, file)

US Congressional Democrats have demanded to hear directly from top White House adviser Jared Kushner over allegations of proposed secret back-channel communications with Russia, saying the security clearance of President Donald Trump's son-in-law may need to be revoked.

Mr Trump, having returned from a nine-day overseas trip, immediately railed against administration leaks as "fabricated lies" in a flurry of tweets.

A key Trump campaign figure possibly seeking secret communications with a country that intelligence experts say intervened in the 2016 US presidential election was "obviously very concerning," said Adam Schiff of California, the top Democrat on the House intelligence committee.

Mr Schiff said the Government needed to "get to the bottom" of the matter and urged a review of Mr Kushner's security clearance "to find out whether he was truthful".

"If not, then there's no way he can maintain that kind of a clearance," Mr Schiff said.

Democrat senator Cory Booker, a member of the Foreign Relations Committee, described the latest allegations involving Mr Kushner as "serious" and called for a thorough investigation.

"He needs to answer for what was happening at the time," Mr Booker said.

"What's worrying me are the patterns we're seeing. So one is this administration not talking about our values, cozying up to authoritarian leaders.

"And the other pattern we have is just a continuous drumbeat of inappropriate contacts with the Russians."

You probably already know that he's married to Donald Trump's daughter Ivanka. But there's more to him than that.

Lawyers for Mr Kushner said he was willing to talk with federal and congressional investigators about his foreign contacts and his work on the Trump campaign.

Having just returned from visiting the Middle East and Europe, Mr Trump on Sunday dismissed recent reports as "fake news".

"It is my opinion that many of the leaks coming out of the White House are fabricated lies," Mr Trump tweeted.

He added: "Whenever you see the words 'sources say' in the fake news media, and they don't mention names ... it is very possible that those sources don't exist."

Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly said he did not know if the news reports were true but described back-channel communications as a "good thing".

He was echoing the sentiment of National Security Adviser HR McMaster, who declined to address the contents of Mr Kushner's December meeting with the Russian diplomat to reporters in Sicily over the weekend and suggested that back-channel communications were commonplace and not concerning.

"It's both normal, in my opinion, and acceptable," Mr Kelly said.

"Any way that you can communicate with people, particularly organisations that are maybe not particularly friendly to us is a good thing. I don't see the big deal."

Mr Trump's tweets came as the media reported that the White House was preparing to establish a "war room" to combat mounting questions about ties between Russia and his presidential campaign.

Reuters/AP

Topics: world-politics, security-intelligence, donald-trump, united-states, russian-federation