Tag: Jared Kushner

Kushner’s Callous Conduct On Covid-19 Panel ’Flabbergasted’ Others Present

When Jared Kushner was grilled by CNN’s Wolf Blitzer earlier this week, the White House senior adviser vigorously defended President Donald Trump on a range of issues — including the president’s widely criticized response to the coronavirus pandemic. Kushner has played a key role in that response: he was put in a charge of a private sector-oriented coronavirus task force that was separate from the White House task force with Dr. Anthony Fauci and Dr. Deborah Birx.

And in a lengthy, in-depth article for Vanity Fair, Katherine Eban revealed some explosive details of Kushner’s coronavirus response, focusing heavily on a meeting on Friday, March 20.

Kushner was present at that meeting, which was attended by “a large group of officials at the Federal Emergency Management Agency — people one attendee described as ‘the doers’ — to strategize how best to replenish the nation’s depleted reserves of PPE.” Continue reading.

Bob Woodward fires back after Kushner claims he has his own audio tapes: ‘I report accurately’

AlterNet logo

Bob Woodward on Tuesday dismissed a veiled threat from White House adviser Jared Kushner, who claimed to have audio tapes of the veteran journalist.

In an interview on the Today Show, Kushner was asked about comments he made during an interview with Woodward. According to Woodward, Kushner can be heard on tape calling former members of the Trump administration “overconfident idiots.”

Kushner revealed that both men had recorded the interview, and suggested that Woodward’s account was false. Continue reading.

Leaked memo reveals White House counsel pushed to downgrade Kushner’s clearance over ‘serious’ concerns

AlterNet logo

Former White House counsel Don McGahn called for presidential son-in-law Jared Kushner’s security clearance to be downgraded over “serious” concerns in his background check, according to a new book.

President Donald Trump overruled career officials in 2018 to grant Kushner a top-secret security clearance despite concerns raised by intelligence officials and the White House. A memo obtained by Times reporter Michael Schmidt for his new book “Donald Trump v. The United States” shows that McGahn argued that Kushner’s clearance should be downgraded over those concerns, according to an excerpt published by Axios.

“The information you were briefed on one week ago and subsequently relayed to me, raises serious additional concerns about whether this individual ought to retain a top security clearance until such issues can be investigated and resolved,” McGahn wrote in a memo to then-White House chief of staff John Kelly following a routine FBI background investigation into Kushner. Continue reading.

Here are 7 damning revelations from the new Senate report on Trump and Russia

AlterNet logo

Long after any debate about whether President Donald Trump’s ties to Russia’s 2016 election interference might lead to his impeachment had fizzled out, the Senate Intelligence Committee dropped a bomb of a report on Tuesday including explosive new details of the sordid affair.

While the new report doesn’t completely upend the story of the 2016 campaign as we knew it — much of the outline of the conduct was contained in former Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report and previous news articles — it highlights new details and facts that emphasize the duplicity going on behind the scenes. It completely undermines the notion, pushed by the president and attorney general, that there was no basis for the investigation and shows there is ample evidence for what was once widely discussed as “collusion.” And this is particularly significant because the report was developed by a committee led by Republicans — they can’t be painted as enemies of the president, as Mueller’s team was.

Here are seven of the most striking details from the new report: Continue reading.

Trump’s 2016 campaign chair was a ‘grave counterintelligence threat,’ had repeated contact with Russian intelligence, Senate panel finds

Washington Post logo

President Trump’s 2016 campaign chairman posed a “grave counterintelligence threat” due to his interaction with people close to the Kremlin, according to a bipartisan Senate report released Tuesday that found extensive contacts between key campaign advisers and officials affiliated with Moscow’s government and intelligence services.

In its report, the Republican-led Senate Intelligence Committee states that Trump’s then-campaign chair Paul Manafort worked with a Russian intelligence officer “on narratives that sought to undermine evidence that Russia interfered in the 2016 U.S. election,” including the idea that purported Ukrainian election interference was of greater concern.

It found that a Russian attorney who met with Manafort, along with the president’s son, Donald Trump Jr., and his son-in-law Jared Kushner at Trump Tower in 2016, had “significant connections” to the Kremlin. The information she offered them was also “part of a broader influence operation targeting the United States that was coordinated, at least in part with elements of the Russian government,” the report stated. Continue reading.

Former FDA Chief Calls Out Jared Kushner For Comparing COVID-19 To Common Flu

The number of COVID-19 cases and deaths has remained “fairly persistent” over the last few weeks, the former FDA commissioner noted.

The former head of the Food and Drug Administration criticized Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner for casually comparing COVID-19 to the common flu during an interview Sunday.

“We need to be careful about making comparisons to flu — and the death and disease we see in flu relative to COVID,” former FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb said on CBS News’ “Face The Nation.”

The number of COVID-19 cases and deaths has remained “fairly persistent” over the last few weeks, noted Gottlieb, a Republican who served in both the Obama and Trump administrations. Continue reading.

Deutsche Bank Opens Review Into Personal Banker to Trump and Kushner

New York Times logoThe bank will examine a 2013 transaction between the banker, Rosemary Vrablic, and a company part-owned by Jared Kushner.

Deutsche Bank has opened an internal investigation into the longtime personal banker of President Trump and his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, over a 2013 real estate transaction between the banker and a company part-owned by Mr. Kushner.

In June 2013, the banker, Rosemary Vrablic, and two of her Deutsche Bank colleagues purchased a Park Avenue apartment for about $1.5 million from a company called Bergel 715 Associates, according to New York property records.

Mr. Kushner, a senior adviser to the president, disclosed in an annual personal financial report late Friday that he and his wife, Ivanka Trump, had received $1 million to $5 million last year from Bergel 715. A person familiar with Mr. Kushner’s finances, who wasn’t authorized to speak publicly, said he held an ownership stake in the entity at the time of the transaction with Ms. Vrablic. Continue reading.

Scoop: Trump regrets Kushner advice

Axios logoPresident Trump has told people in recent days that he regrets following some of son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner’s political advice — including supporting criminal justice reform — and will stick closer to his own instincts, three people with direct knowledge of the president’s thinking tell Axios.

Behind the scenes: One person who spoke with the president interpreted his thinking this way: “No more of Jared’s woke s***.” Another said Trump has indicated that following Kushner’s advice has harmed him politically.

Why it matters: This could be the final straw for federal police reform legislation this year, and it could usher in even more incendiary campaign tactics between now and November. Continue reading.

Scoop: Kushner changes top Trump campaign staff

Axios logoMichael Glassner, the man who organizes President Trump’s rallies, has been “reassigned,” and Trump’s 2016 Arizona chair Jeff DeWit will join the campaign as chief operating officer to oversee the final stretch to election day, three sources familiar with the situation tell Axios.

Driving the news: Jared Kushner engineered these moves. Glassner, a Trump campaign original dating back to 2015, has been told he will now be handling the campaign’s various lawsuits, sources say.

  • DeWit, a Kushner ally, is a businessman and former Arizona state treasurer who served as chief financial officer of NASA under Trump from 2018 until earlier this year. Continue reading.