So. Last December – after the election, before the inauguration. Some people got together at Trump Tower in Manhattan; among them were Jared Kushner, Michael Flynn, and Sergey Kislyak. After the eggnog and mince pie and the exchange of prezzies, Kushner suggested “establishing a secret communications channel between the Trump transition team and Moscow to discuss strategy in Syria and other policy issues.”

Yes that’s right, the president-elect’s daughter’s husband, age 36, a real estate hustler, tried to set up a secret communications channel with the Russians, i.e. a hostile foreign rival.

News of the discussion was first reported by The Washington Post. The revelation has stoked new questions about Mr. Kushner’s connections to Russian officials at a time when the F.B.I. is conducting a wide-ranging investigation into Russia’s attempts to disrupt last year’s presidential election and whether any of Mr. Trump’s advisers assisted in the Russian campaign.

Current and former American officials said Mr. Kushner’s activities, like those of many others around Mr. Trump, are under scrutiny as part of the investigation. But Mr. Kushner is not currently the subject of a criminal investigation.

In the days after the meeting with Mr. Kislyak, Mr. Kushner had a separate meeting with Sergey N. Gorkov, a Russian banker with close ties to Russia’s president, Vladimir V. Putin.

The Post reported that the direct line between the transition team and the Kremlin in concept would have been conducted through Russian diplomatic facilities to avoid being monitored in American communication systems. The Post also reported that Mr. Kushner had proposed the communications channel and that it took Mr. Kislyak by surprise. The New York Times could not immediately confirm these details.

Well this all seems a bit messy. Maybe we could have a rethink. Maybe Trump could dig deep and come up with some childhood friends or classmates or drinking buddies who could fill these jobs instead of Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump and other relatives.

On Friday, Reuters reported that Mr. Kushner had at least two previously undisclosed phone calls with Mr. Kislyak between April 2016 and Election Day. The calls focused on how to improve economic relations between the United States and Russia, and how the two countries could better cooperate in the fight against Islamist extremism, Reuters reported, citing six current and former American officials.

Why wouldn’t we want an ignorant young real estate hustler doing homemade amateur diplomacy in his garage? What could possibly go amiss?