Senate Democrats Open Probe Of Kushner's Billion-Dollar Foreign Deals
Jared Kushner, left and former President Donald Trump
In 2022, theNew York Times reported that a panel that screens investments for Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund had recommended not working with former Trump White House Senior Adviser Jared Kushner and his company Affinity Partners. But the full board, under the leadership of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, a.k.a. MBS, overruled the recommendation.
Now, in 2024, HuffPost's Arthur Delaney is reporting that Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden (D-OR) is investigating Kushner's business with the Saudi government.
On Wednesday, June 12, according to Delaney, Wyden sent Affinity Partners a letter asking for "details about its investors on Wednesday," including "the $2 billion it received from the Saudi Arabian government's Public Investment Fund in 2021."
Wyden told Affinity, "Mr. Kushner's limited track record as an investor, including his nonexistent experience in private equity or hedge funds, raise questions regarding the investment strategy behind the seeding investments and lucrative compensation that Affinity received from the Saudi PIF and other sovereign wealth funds."
In his letter, Wyden wanted to know how much Kushner had been paid.
The Oregon senator wrote, "The Saudi PIF's decision to invest $2 billion in Affinity so soon after Kushner's departure from the Trump White House raises concerns that the investment was a reward for official actions Kushner took to benefit the Saudi government, including preventing accountability for the Saudi government ordering the brutal murder of journalist and American citizen Jamal Khashoggi."
According to Delaney, Wyden's letter "represents an escalation of Democratic scrutiny of Kushner's business activities."
"Even House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer (R-Ky.), an aggressive defender of Donald Trump, said last year that he thought Kushner 'crossed the line of ethics' with his Saudi deal," Delaney observes.
Reprinted with permission from Alternet.
