Questions are mounting about Jared Kushner’s alleged family financial dealings
A high-ranking Democrat senator has called for Jared Kushner’s ouster from the White House if troubling reports about the President’s son-in-law are true.
Senator Chris Murphy, of Connecticut, spoke out on Sunday about the mounting allegations about Kushner’s family financial dealings in the Middle East, and implications that he used US foreign policy as a tool of personal retaliation.
‘If it’s true, it’s damning,’ Murphy told ABC News. ‘If it’s true he’s got to go.’
The allegations date back to April of 2017, when Kushner’s father Charles met with Qatari Finance Minister Ali Sharif Al Emadi, according to a new report from the Intercept.
At the meeting in the St. Regis Hotel in New York, Charles sought a cash infusion from Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund for the Kushner family’s 666 Fifth Avenue property in Manhattan but was rebuffed, two sources told the publication.
The Kushner Companies’ Fifth Avenue property is reportedly facing some $1.4billion in debt that is due in 2019.
‘If it’s true, it’s damning,’ Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut said on Sunday of an alleged meeting Kushner’s father had with the Qatari Finance Minister in May
Jared Kushner’s father Charles (with him left) reportedly met with Qatari Finance Minister Ali Sharif Al Emadi (right) seeking a cash infusion for the family’s 666 Fifth Avenue property
The following month, in May 2017, Kushner accompanied Donald Trump to Saudi Arabia in his first foreign trip as president.
On the trip, the White House strongly backed Saudi Arabia in a blockade against regional rival Qatar, convincing other Gulf states to join the sanctions and sealing a $350billion arms deal with Saudi Arabia.
‘For many of us that follow the Middle East closely, we could not understand why the Trump administration was so firmly taking the Saudis’ side in this dispute between the Saudis, the Emiratis and the Qataris, because the United States has very important interests in Qatar,’ Murphy said on Sunday.
The US maintains a key airbase in Qatar with over 11,000 personnel.
‘If the reason that this administration put US troops at risk in Qatar was to protect the Kushners’ financial interests, then that’s all the evidence you need to make some big changes in the White House,’ Murphy said.
In May 2017, Kushner accompanied Donald Trump to Saudi Arabia in his first foreign trip as president. He is pictured center on the trip with wife Ivanka and a Saudi
Meanwhile, Special Counsel Robert Mueller has asked witnesses about Kushner’s attempts to secure financing for his family’s real estate ventures, focusing specifically on his talks with people from Qatar and Turkey, as well as Russia, China and the United Arab Emirates, according to NBC News.
Qatari government officials who visited the United States earlier this year considered turning over information to Mueller that they believed demonstrated their neighbors in the Gulf were coordinating with Kushner to hurt Qatar, NBC News said, citing four people familiar with the matter.
The Qatari officials decided against cooperating with Mueller for now out of fear it would further strain the country’s relations with the White House, the individuals said.
A spokesman for Mueller’s office, Peter Carr, declined to comment on the report.
A spokesman for Kushner attorney Abbe Lowell said the report was the ‘mischief’ of unnamed sources conducting a ‘misinformation campaign’ to mislead the news media.
Jared Kushner (center) sits alongside Trump and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross they prepare to meet with Saudi Arabia’s King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud on the May trip
The Washington Post reported earlier this week that officials from the UAE, China, Israel and Mexico have talked privately about ways to manipulate Kushner using his business arrangements, financial difficulties and lack of foreign policy experience.
The Post report quoted unnamed U.S. officials familiar with intelligence reports on the issue.
Kushner has lost his access to top-secret US intelligence information in recent weeks because of his inability to obtain a security clearance at that level.
Kushner, who has divested from parts of the family real estate company, has denied any wrongdoing in a statement to ABC.
Kushner Cos. also said in a statement obtained by ABC News that his role in the White House has had no impact on their business dealings.
‘To suggest that Jared, when taking on his role in the White House, has suddenly affected our long-standing relationships or that we do business differently than we have in the past is made up and without substantiation,’ the statement read.