Jared Kushner makes rare public statement at technology summit

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Jared Kushner hosts White House roundtable with CEOs

Senior White House adviser speaks at launch of American Technology Council

Jared Kushner made a rare public statement Monday afternoon at a technology summit aimed at modernizing the government.

President Trump's son-in-law and senior White House adviser attended the four-hour event in Washington, D.C., to present ideas on how to tackle government's top technology problem. Apple CEO Tim Cook and Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos joined Kushner at the summit.

"We have challenged ourselves to pursue change that will provide utilities to Americans far beyond our tenure here," Kushner said during his speech. "Together we have set ambitious goals and empowered interagency teams to tackle our objectives."

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Kushner said the White House Office of American Innovation was created to bring "business sensability" to the White House that's still relying on practices from previous administrations.

Other topics that were expected to come up during the summit were cybersecurity, analytics and future technology trends.

This is the first public statement Kushner has made since news broke of his involvement in the Russia probe. Kushner met with Russian Ambassador to the U.S. Sergei Kislyak at Trump Tower in December to talk about Syria, a source told Fox News.

Kushner is expected to travel to the Middle East on Monday for meetings in Jerusalem and Ramallah, an effort to broker a peace deal between the two sides.