Tag: Jared Kushner

Will Trump Pull Out of Middle East Peace Talks After Reports of Abbas Kushner Rift?

The following article by Tom Porter was posted on the Newsweek website June 25, 2017:

In this handout image provided by the Palestinian Press Office (PPO), Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas (R) meets with Jared Kushner, Senior Advisor to U.S. President Donald Trump, on June 21, 2017 in Ramallah, West Bank.THAER GHANAIM/PPO VIA GETTY IMAGES

A U.S. official denied reports that President Donald Trump was considering pulling out of peace negotiations between Israel and Palestinians after a rift opened up in the first meeting between Trump aide and son-in-law Jared Kushner and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.

London-based Arabic daily Al-Hayat reported Saturday that the meeting between Kushner and Abbas had been “tense.” Abbas was allegedly furious when Kushner relayed a set of demands from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, according to a translation of the report by the Jerusalem Post.

Israeli daily Haaretz reported that Palestinian officials were “greatly disappointed” following their Wednesday meeting with Kushner and Jonathan Greenblatt, Trump’s Middle East envoy.

“They sounded like Netanyahu’s advisers and not like fair arbiters,” a senior Palestinian official told the publication. “They started presenting Netanyahu’s issues and then we asked to hear from them clear stances regarding the core issues of the conflict.” Continue reading “Will Trump Pull Out of Middle East Peace Talks After Reports of Abbas Kushner Rift?”

Kushner firm’s $285 million Deutsche Bank loan came just before Election Day

the following article by Michael Kranish was posted on the Washington Post website June 25, 2017:

One month before Election Day, Jared Kushner’s real estate company finalized a $285 million loan as part of a refinancing package for its property near Times Square in Manhattan.

The loan came at a critical moment. Kushner was playing a key role in the presidential campaign of his father-in-law, Donald Trump. The lender, Deutsche Bank, was negotiating to settle a federal mortgage fraud case and charges from New York state regulators that it aided a possible Russian money-laundering scheme. The cases were settled in December and January. Continue reading “Kushner firm’s $285 million Deutsche Bank loan came just before Election Day”

Special counsel is investigating Jared Kushner’s business dealings

The following article by Sari Horwit,Matt Zapotosky and Adam Entous was posted on the Washington Post website June 15, 2017:

Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post

Special counsel Robert S. Mueller III is investigating the finances and business dealings of Jared Kushner, President Trump’s son-in-law and adviser, as part of the investigation into Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential election, according to U.S. officials familiar with the matter.

FBI agents and federal prosecutors have also been examining the financial dealings of other Trump associates, including former national security adviser Michael Flynn, former campaign chairman Paul Manafort and Carter Page, who was listed as a foreign-policy adviser for the campaign. Continue reading “Special counsel is investigating Jared Kushner’s business dealings”

The Problem With Jared Kushner

The following commentary by the Editorial Board of the New York Times was posted June 2, 2017:

Image: World News

What are we supposed to make of the news that Jared Kushner, President Trump’s son-in-law and senior White House adviser, met with the Russian ambassador in December to discuss establishing a back channel between the incoming Trump administration and the Kremlin, using Russian diplomatic facilities?

Start with the reactions from America’s intelligence community, whose job it is to monitor foreign actors’ attempts to steal the nation’s most closely guarded secrets. Continue reading “The Problem With Jared Kushner”

As White House defends Jared Kushner, experts question his back-channel move

The following article by Abby Phillips and Max Ehrenfreund was posted on the Washington Post website May 28, 2017:

Donald Trump with son-in-law Jared Kushner and daughter Ivanka Trump on Nov. 9. (Mark Wilson/Getty Images)

The Trump administration argued over the weekend that back-channel communications are acceptable in building dialogue with foreign governments, part of an effort to minimize fallout over White House adviser Jared Kushner’s reported discussion about creating a secret conduit to the Kremlin at a Russian diplomatic compound.

But some former administration officials on Sunday criticized the use of such secret channels, especially during a presidential transition, saying they could send a confusing message and be manipulated by a foreign power. Continue reading “As White House defends Jared Kushner, experts question his back-channel move”

A high-stakes gamble: How Jared Kushner reacted to previous crises

The following article by Michael Kranish and Jonathan O’Connell was posted on the Washington Post May 27, 2017:

Jared Kushner, senior advisor and son-in-law to President Trump, is arguably one of the most influential figures in the White House. Here’s how he used N.Y. real estate and the media to solidify his power. (Video: Alice Li/Photo: Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)

NEW YORK — Jared Kushner had barely survived a fight to save his family’s real estate empire.

Taking charge of the business after his father went to prison, Kushner, 25 at the time, paid $1.8 billion in 2007 for the nation’s most expensive office building. Then the market went south, the debts piled up, and Kushner spent years pushing banks to renegotiate the loans. Continue reading “A high-stakes gamble: How Jared Kushner reacted to previous crises”

Jared Kushner’s Other Real Estate Empire

The following article by Alec MacGillis was posted on the New York Times website May 23, 2017:

Baltimore-area renters complain about a property owner they say is neglectful and litigious. Few know their landlord is the president’s son-in-law.

Baltimore-area properties owned by Kushner Companies. Credit Philip Montgomery for The New York Times

The townhouse on High Seas Court in the Cove Village development, in the Baltimore suburb of Essex, was not exactly the Cape Cod retreat that its address implied: It was a small unit looking onto a parking lot, the windows of its two bedrooms so high and narrow that a child would have had to stand on a chair to see out of them. But to Kamiia Warren, who moved into the townhouse in 2004, it was a refuge, and a far cry from the East Baltimore neighborhood where she grew up. “I mean, there were bunny rabbits all hopping around,” she told me recently.

In the townhouse next door lived an older woman with whom Warren became friendly, even doing her grocery shopping once in a while. But over the course of a few months, the woman started acting strangely. She began accosting Warren’s visitors. She shouted through the walls during the day. And at night she banged on the wall, right where Warren kept the bassinet in which her third child slept, waking him up. Continue reading “Jared Kushner’s Other Real Estate Empire”

Kushner keeps most of his real estate but offers few clues about potential White House conflicts

The following article by Amy Brittain and Jonathan O’Connell was posted on the Washington Post website May 21, 1027:

White House senior adviser Jared Kushner listens as President Trump speaks during an executive order signing in early May. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)

As chief executive of his family’s real estate empire, Jared Kushner planned two apartment projects across the street from each other in Jersey City.

Both would be luxury skyscrapers, complete with retail space and sweeping views of the Manhattan skyline. A new crosswalk would connect them, intended to link the two Kushner Cos. developments practically and visually. Continue reading “Kushner keeps most of his real estate but offers few clues about potential White House conflicts”

Dutch Documentary Part II: Blood On Trump And Kushner’s Hands From Deals With Africa War Zone Diamond Mines

The following article by Steven Rosenfeld was posted on the AlterNet website May 15, 2017:

Lev Leviev’s diamond empire stretches from Angola to Moscow, London and Amsterdam.

The Trump family’s business partners have blood on their hands owing to deals with notorious diamond brokers who operate mines in wartorn Africa and own jewelry stores in London, Moscow and Amsterdam.

That’s the premise in Part Two of a documentary series by the Dutch TV network Zembla, The Dubious Friends of Donald Trump: King of Diamonds. It shows how the U.S. president and his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, have apparent partnerships with an Israeli billionaire who is tied to “trading in blood diamonds,” as the film’s description notes, and how this relationship overlaps with power circles in Russia reaching President Vladimir Putin and Russian oligarchs. Continue reading “Dutch Documentary Part II: Blood On Trump And Kushner’s Hands From Deals With Africa War Zone Diamond Mines”

d In a Beijing ballroom, Kushner family pushes $500,000 ‘investor visa’ to wealthy Chinese

The following article by Emily Rauhala and William Wan was posted on the Washington Post website May 6, 2017:

The event was hosted by the Chinese company Qiaowai, which connects U.S. companies with Chinese investors. (Emily Rauhala/The Washington Post)

BEIJING — The Kushner family came to the United States as refugees, worked hard and made it big — and if you invest in Kushner properties, so can you.

That was the message delivered Saturday by White House senior adviser Jared Kushner’s sister Nicole Kushner Meyer to a ballroom full of wealthy Chinese investors in Beijing.

Over several hours of slide shows and presentations, representatives from the Kushner family business urged Chinese citizens gathered at a Ritz-Carlton hotel to consider investing hundreds of thousands of dollars in a New Jersey luxury apartment complex that would help them secure what’s known as an investor visa. Continue reading “d In a Beijing ballroom, Kushner family pushes $500,000 ‘investor visa’ to wealthy Chinese”