House Democrats want a congressional investigation into what they view as possible corruption on the part of former Trump son-in-law and presidential adviser Jared Kushner. They want to investigate money he reportedly received from Saudi Arabia shortly after leaving office in 2021.
House Oversight Committee Ranking Member Jamie Raskin wrote the following in a letter to Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky:
“At the time Mr. Kushner transitioned from the White House to the private sector, diplomats and ethics experts raised their concerns about the glaring potential conflicts of interest arising from Mr. Kushner’s financial interests in the Gulf region.”
Democrats Initiated Kushner Investigation When They Controlled the House
The House Oversight and Accountability Committee launched an investigation into Kushner’s dealings with the Kingdom in June 2022. Kushner reportedly received $2 billion from a fund linked to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman six months after Kushner left the White House.
“In a June 2, 2022, letter, Committee Democrats detailed concerns about your receipt of a $2 billion investment from Saudi Arabia months after influencing U.S. foreign policy to benefit the Kingdom.6 Recent reports have renewed the Committee’s concerns that this investment may have constituted a quid pro quo for your official actions in the White House,” Raskin detailed in a February letter to Kushner.
Raskin complained that the Trump administration sided with the Saudi crown prince instead of opposing him following the grisly murder of Jamal Khashoggi, and also supported the Saudi war in Yemen despite what Raskin called human-rights violations.
“Although Affinity was structured in a way to keep its funding hidden, it was revealed that, within months of its formation, it received a $2 billion investment from the Saudi government,” Raskin said in his letter to Kushner. “The Saudi sovereign wealth fund, chaired by the Crown Prince, made this investment despite senior Saudi officials’ serious concerns about the ‘inexperience of the Affinity Fund management’ and its conclusion that your fund’s investment proposal was ‘unsatisfactory in all respects.’”
Raskin continued, “Because of Affinity’s structure, it is unclear the extent to which the $2.51 billion in funds under management were personally approved by a foreign leader you negotiated within your official capacity when in office.”
Raskin Tells MSNBC’s Chris Hayes Kushner Different Than Hunter Biden
Raskin told MSNBC host Chris Hayes that Kushner and Hunter Biden are different because the former was actually involved in the formulation of U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East.
“So we want all the information in the same way that the committee is going for all the information about Hunter Biden, who, after all, never worked for the government, was not in the Biden administration,” Raskin said. He continued, “I mean, like that’s the interest you would have basically on a half a billion dollars that he’s, you know, pocketing directly from Mohammed bin Salman, who was obviously expressing his gratitude to the Trump administration for going there first in Trump’s foreign travels for the cover-up of the assassination of Khashoggi, for tilting towards Saudi Arabia in the Yemen war and on and on, the Saudis basically got whatever they wanted.”
Comer Says Laws Need to Change to Reign In Presidential Family Members.
Oversight and Accountability Committee Chairman James Comer called on Raskin to get on board with the Hunter Biden investigation.
“If Ranking Member Raskin was truly concerned about ethics in government, then he would join Republicans in our investigation of the Bidens’ blatant corruption. However, Ranking Member Raskin is only concerned about playing Biden family defense lawyer,” Comer told Fox News.
Comer expressed concern about Kushner’s activities in July.
“I don’t disagree with the Democrats and their criticism of the previous administration. We have a problem here that needs a legislative solution. That’s why this Biden investigation is so important. There’s a legislative solution to this, and it can be bipartisan,” Comer said at the time.
“The Democrats complained about Kushner’s foreign dealings. Republicans are certainly complaining about the entire Biden family’s foreign business dealings.”
Comer continued, “We need to know what is allowable and what isn’t allowable. We need to have strict ethics laws. And we need to significantly increase the disclosure laws in America. So I think this investigation is going to be very important to fix a problem before it gets out of hand.”
John Rossomando is a defense and counterterrorism analyst and served as Senior Analyst for Counterterrorism at The Investigative Project on Terrorism for eight years. His work has been featured in numerous publications such as The American Thinker, The National Interest, National Review Online, Daily Wire, Red Alert Politics, CNSNews.com, The Daily Caller, Human Events, Newsmax, The American Spectator, TownHall.com, and Crisis Magazine. He also served as senior managing editor of The Bulletin, a 100,000-circulation daily newspaper in Philadelphia, and received the Pennsylvania Associated Press Managing Editors first-place award for his reporting.
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