Why are Jared Kushner’s family business activities under investigation?
Congressional committees look into Jared Kushner’s diplomatic activity and whether he used it to bail out his family’s real estate business
The latest development in the revolving-door investigation into members of the Trump administration, two congressional committees have asked whether Jared Kushner used his connections “to improperly influence U.S. tax, trade and national security policies for his own financial gain.”
The claims center on a 2018 deal by a Canadian company, Brookfield Asset Management, partly owned by the Qatar Investment Authority, a sovereign wealth fund, invested $1.8 billion in a 99-year lease for a Manhattan office building, saving the Kushner family company from defaulting on a loan.
Jared’s father, Charles Kushner, was convicted in 2005 of tax evasion and other charges, before being pardoned by President Trump in 2020. The elder Kushner met with Qatar’s finance minister to discuss the property in 2017, at a time when Jared was involved in Middle East policy, before reportedly nixing any deal with the nation to avoid a conflict of interest. It turns out that the deal may have simply been disguised rather than cancelled.
The American people deserve to know if Jared Kushner corruptly allowed his personal business ties to influence U.S. policy during his time at the White House. Today @RepMaloney and I are ramping up our investigation to get answers. https://t.co/WcUnJ901g7
— Ron Wyden (@RonWyden) December 7, 2022
The day after the Trump presidency ended, Kushner created a private equity firm, which received a $2 billion investment from Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, headed by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the man who ordered the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Istanbul.
Recently, Jared Kushner has been photographed seated alongside Qatar’s Prime Minister Sheikh Khalid bin Khalifa bin Abdulaziz Al Thani at the World Cup soccer tournament.
The two committees have also said that they are requesting access to any correspondence that refers to “Kushner seeking to influence, interfere with, or supersede the normal operations and responsibilities” of the State and Defense departments.