“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.”

“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.”

“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.”

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.”

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.”

“New York’s state banking regulator asked Deutsche Bank AG and two other lenders for information on their relationships with President Trump’s son-in-law and White House senior adviser Jared Kushner and his family’s real estate company,” Reuters reports.

“Jared Kushner has had his security clearance downgraded — a move that will prevent him from viewing many of the sensitive documents to which he once had unfettered access,” Politico reports.

“Kushner is not alone. All White House aides working on the highest-level interim clearances — at the Top Secret/SCI-level — were informed in a memo sent Friday that their clearances would be downgraded to the Secret level.”

Fire and Fury author Michael Wolff said he believes Jared Kushner will be indicted in special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe, and would likely turn on President Trump, the HuffPost reports.

Said Wolff: “I think that there is a pretty good possibility at this point that Jared will be indicted. So the more direct question is will Trump throw his son-in-law under the bus, and then the corollary to that is, will his son-in-law throw his father-in-law under the bus? And I think the answer to both of those questions is ‘yes’.”