House oversight committee launches probe into Jared Kusher’s Saudi-backed investment fund

Mr Kushner’s new venture received a $2bn investment from a Saudi sovereign wealth fund

(AFP via Getty Images)

The House oversight committee has opened an investigation into ex-Trump White House adviser Jared Kushner’s new Saudi-backed investment fund and whether the real estate heir turned presidential adviser leveraged his former government position for personal gain.

In a letter to Mr Kushner, the committee’s chair, Representative Carolyn Maloney of New York, wrote that her committee is investigating whether he “improperly traded on your government position to obtain billions of dollars from the Saudi government” and whether his “personal financial interests improperly influenced U.S. foreign policy” during his time serving as one of former president Donald Trump’s closest advisers.

She added that her committee’s investigation would provide information on “whether federal ethics laws should be strengthened to prevent senior public officials from taking advantage of their position within the federal government to reap a financial windfall—before, during, or after government employment”.

Mr Kushner, who prior to serving in the Trump White House was known for his poor stewardship of a New York City newspaper, the New York Observer, and his dubious management of his family’s real estate company, but was given a wide-ranging portfolio when he was named as a senior adviser to Mr Trump, who is also his father-in-law.

Though Mr Kushner only received a symbolic dollar per year salary when serving in government, his White House role as a point person for the Middle East placed him in contact with foreign officials who were in a position to help him financially.

In one instance, Mr Kushner’s company received a billion dollar bailout from a Qatari investment fund which eliminated the massive debt he’d incurred by overpaying for a New York skyscraper shortly before the 2008 financial crisis.

Mr Kushner also used his position to strike up a friendship with Mohammed bin Salman shortly before he was named Crown Prince and began a purge of high-ranking officials and power brokers in Saudi society, imprisoning many in a Riyadh luxury hotel until they agreed to divest themselves of assets he claimed were stolen.

The hands-off approach Mr Kushner pushed the Trump administration to take towards Saudi Arabia also led the crown prince, who is commonly known by his initials MBS, to feel free to take repressive actions towards Saudi dissidents both in the kingdom and abroad, such as when he ordered the murder of Washington Post columnist Jamal Kashoggi.

Mr Trump also approved multiple arms sale packages to Saudi Arabia despite reports of widespread human rights abuses and accusations that Saudi forces had committed war crimes during the kingdom’s long-running conflict in Yemen.

Ms Maloney said her committee’s investigation would provide information on “whether federal ethics laws should be strengthened to prevent senior public officials from taking advantage of their position within the federal government to reap a financial windfall—before, during, or after government employment”.

“Although you did not represent the U.S. in an official diplomatic capacity, you used your role at the White House to exert an outsized influence on U.S. foreign policy with respect to Saudi Arabia, bypassing senior diplomatic officials at the State Department and steering U.S. foreign policy toward the benefit of Saudi Arabia and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman,” she wrote.

“The Committee is concerned by your decision to solicit billions of dollars from the Saudi government immediately following your significant involvement in shaping U.S.-Saudi relations. Your close relationship with Crown Prince bin Salman, your pro-Saudi positions during the Trump Administration, and PIF’s decision to fund the lion’s share of your new business venture—only six months after the end of your White House tenure—create the appearance of a quid pro quo for your foreign policy work during the Trump Administration”.

Ms Maloney has requested that Mr Kushner provide by 16 June “all documents and communications” regarding the Saudi investment in his new venture, “including but not limited to any references to your government employment, foreign policy initiatives in which you participated, the Trump Administration and related policies or events, or your relationship to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman or other Saudi officials”.

She has also asked for “all communications” between Mr Kushner, MBS, and “other Saudi officials” from January 2017 to the present, as well as “all documents related to such communications, related to your or your family’s present or future business ventures, including but not limited to Saudi investments or participation in any of these ventures”.