“The company controlled by the family of the White House adviser Jared Kushner is close to receiving a bailout of its financially troubled flagship building by a company with ties to the government of Qatar,” the New York Times reports.
“Mr. Kushner earlier this year lost his top-secret security clearance amid concerns that foreign governments could attempt to gain influence with the White House by doing business with the Kushner Companies.”
“He’s reportedly worth $300 million, but it appears even Steve Mnuchin can’t say no to a cheap bottle of wine,” the Daily Mail reports.
“The Secretary of Treasury was snapped bringing a $22 bottle of red wine on a visit to Jared Kushner’s house in Washington DC on Sunday. Mnuchin was dressed down for the visit with Trump’s senior adviser and son-in-law, sporting jeans and a gray polo shirt.”
The New York Times reports that the Kushner family appears to have “struck a deal to buy out” an investor’s stake in the “troubled” 666 Fifth Avenue property, which is a primary piece of its “real estate empire.”
Axios: “How they got the money is unclear. Questions had been raised about Kushner meetings with foreign big shots like Qatar as part of securing the financing. Per the Times, negotiations with foreign entities drew scrutiny because of Jared Kushner’s role in his father-in-law’s White House.”
Planned Parenthood president Cecile Richards writes in her new memoir that Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump offered the organization increased federal funding if it stopped providing abortions, People reports.
Writes Richards: “If it wasn’t crystal clear before, it was now. Jared and Ivanka were there for one reason: to deliver a political win… In their eyes, if they could stop Planned Parenthood from providing abortions, it would confirm their reputation as savvy dealmakers. It was surreal, essentially being asked to barter away women’s rights for more money.”
“White House attorneys are examining whether two loans totaling more than $500 million to Jared Kushner’s family business may have violated any criminal laws or federal ethics regulations,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“The Office of Government Ethics told a Democratic lawmaker in the letter that the White House is probing whether a $184 million loan from the real-estate arm of Apollo Global Management LLC and a $325 million loan from Citigroup Inc. may have run afoul of the rules and laws governing the conduct of federal employees.”
Retired four-star Army Gen. Barry McCaffrey tore into White House adviser Jared Kushner during an interview on MSNBC.
Said McCaffrey: “Putting Jared Kushner, a 30-something person with no foreign policy or defense policy experience, as a leading representative of the United States is simply outrageous.”
He also warned that Kushner’s portfolio shows the “personalization of a family business dealing with U.S. policy.”
“Qatari officials gathered evidence of what they claim is illicit influence by the United Arab Emirates on Jared Kushner and other Trump associates, including details of secret meetings, but decided not to give the information to Special Counsel Robert Mueller for fear of harming relations with the Trump administration,” NBC News reports.
“Qatari officials believe the meetings — as well as fallout from Qatari business dealings with Kushner — may have influenced President Trump’s public endorsement of a blockade of Qatar by its neighbors that began last year.”
Former Gov. Chris Christie (R) told ABC News that it’s time for Jared Kushner to leave the White House.
He said Kushner should follow the example set by a “noble” Hope Hicks, who announced her resignation as communications director last week.
Said Christie: “I think what the staff has to do is in fact what Hope Hicks I think did. I think Hope Hicks saw that between the Rob Porter situation and some of the other things that were going on, that she was becoming a distraction for the president and less of an asset in her mind, and she did the noble thing in my view, which was to say, you know what, if I’m not 100 percent an asset for the president, I’m going to back away.”
“Federal investigators are scrutinizing whether any of Jared Kushner’s business discussions with foreigners during the presidential transition later shaped White House policies in ways designed to either benefit or retaliate against those he spoke with,” NBC News reports.
“Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s team has asked witnesses about Kushner’s efforts to secure financing for his family’s real estate properties, focusing specifically on his discussions during the transition with individuals from Qatar and Turkey, as well as Russia, China and the United Arab Emirates, according to witnesses who have been interviewed as part of the investigation into possible collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign to sway the 2016 election.”
“The Securities and Exchange Commission late last year dropped its inquiry into a financial company that a month earlier had given White House adviser Jared Kushner’s family real estate firm a $180 million loan,” the AP reports.
“While there’s no evidence that Kushner or any other Trump administration official had a role in the agency’s decision to drop the inquiry into Apollo Global Management, the timing has once again raised potential conflict-of-interest questions about Kushner’s family business and his role as an adviser to his father-in-law, President Trump.”
Jim VandeHei: “It’s no secret a lot of people inside and outside the White House want Jared Kushner gone. They think he’s too inexperienced, too compromised by conflicts of interest and the Russia probe, and too ineffective.”
“Their revenge against him this week has been brutal, sustained, at times brilliant, and potentially lethal. What has unfolded is not the work of coincidence: it is the slit-by-slit slow bleed of a top adviser and son-in-law to the president.”
“The real estate firm tied to the family of presidential son-in-law and top White House adviser Jared Kushner made a direct pitch to Qatar’s minister of finance in April 2017 in an attempt to secure investment in a critically distressed asset in the company’s portfolio,” the Intercept reports.
“The failure to broker the deal would be followed only a month later by a Middle Eastern diplomatic row in which Jared Kushner provided critical support to Qatar’s neighbors. Led by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, a group of Middle Eastern countries, with Kushner’s backing, led a diplomatic assault that culminated in a blockade of Qatar. Kushner, according to reports at the time, subsequently undermined efforts by Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to bring an end to the standoff.”
“Jared Kushner showed up for work at the White House on Wednesday and acted like everything was normal. President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and adviser attended the daily senior staff meeting, where he launched into a discussion about Trump’s 2020 reelection bid,” Politico reports.
“Kushner’s recent focus on the 2020 election has led some in the White House to wonder whether he’ll eventually transition out of the West Wing to become an adviser to his father-in-law’s reelection bid. Trump’s newly announced campaign manager, Brad Parscale, is a close ally of Kushner’s and the two men speak on the phone regularly.”
The firm run by Jared Kushner’s family reportedly received a $184 million from Apollo Global Management after founder Joshua Harris made “regular” visits to the White House, the New York Times reports.
Kushner’s firm also received a $325 million loan from Citigroup after Kushner met with Citigroup’s CEO Michael Corbat.
“There is little precedent for a top White House official meeting with executives of companies as they contemplate sizable loans to his business… Mr. Kushner has reported owning hundreds of partnerships, limited liability companies and other entities, but he is not required to disclose the lifeblood of any real estate firm’s business: its lenders and outside investors.”
CNN: “Kushner, whose business dealings and wide portfolio have been the subject of intense scrutiny, told people that he suspected the timing of the story about his foreign contacts was coordinated to be released when issues surrounding his security clearance were in the news, according to a source familiar with his thinking, who described his demeanor in recent days as paranoid.”
“He is under the impression that officials from the intelligence and national security communities were aware of this information beforehand, the person said, but waited until his clearance issues were in the spotlight to make it public.”