Democrats Want Answers About Jared Kushner’s Very Shady Middle East Deal (No, Not the Saudi One!)

Authored by vanityfair.com and submitted by MistressWinterStars
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In August 2018, an economic miracle for the ages took place. Eleven years after a 26-year-old Jared Kushner plunked down a record-setting $1.8 billion on an aging Midtown skyscraper (on the eve of the financial crisis, no less), and just six months before the Kushner family would have to come up with the $1.4 billion it owed on the mortgage for the aptly named 666 Fifth Avenue, an alternative investment firm named Brookfield Asset Management came to the family business’s rescue. That rescue entailed taking on a 99-year lease for the place, which had become an albatross around Jared & Co’s necks, and, The New York Times reported at the time, paying a whopping $1.1 billion in upfront rent; coupled with the reported negotiations between Jared’s father, Charles Kushner, and the company’s lenders, to pay less than Kushner Companies was in debt for, the family narrowly escaped a major financial pickle.

That the presidential in-laws were able to emerge from Jared’s historically bad decision to buy 666 was extremely surprising for a number of reasons, not the least of which was the fact that his previous partner had reportedly once said that 666 Fifth “would be worth a lot more if it was just dirt.” Also, there was the fact that the Kushners had spent years attempting to drum up a bailout without success, reportedly being rebuffed by everyone from the richest man in France to the South Korea’s sovereign wealth fund. What, exactly, did Brookfield see in the place?

The prevailing theory at the time was that the deal may have had something to do with Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund, the Qatar Investment Authority, which was one of Brookfield’s biggest investors, and Jared Kushner’s work in the White House (as you may recall, Donald Trump tasked Jared Kushner with bringing peace to the Middle East). While Brookfield steadfastly insisted that Qatar knew nothing about a deal to bail out the then president’s son-in-law and senior adviser, not everyone—congressional Democrats in particular—believed that the arrangement was entirely above board. And apparently, they still don’t.

The Washington Post reports that Senator Ron Wyden and Representative Carolyn Maloney, in their capacities as chairs of the Senate Finance Committee and House Oversight Committee, have “launched an aggressive new effort to obtain information about whether Jared Kushner’s actions on US policy in the Persian Gulf region as a senior White House adviser were influenced by the bailout of a property owned by his family business.” In letters sent to the Defense and State departments Monday night, the lawmakers requested material they believe could reveal if “Kushner’s financial conflict of interest may have led him to improperly influence US tax, trade, and national security policies for his own financial gain.” And the optics do not look great.

oz6702 on December 12nd, 2022 at 15:28 UTC »

Republicans when Jared Kushner takes in multiple billions of dollars while working directly for the WH: I sleep

Republicans when Hunter Biden, who has never worked for the WH and probably has next to no influence on his dad's foreign policy, makes 0.1% of that amount: REAL SHIT

Edit: he was working directly for the WH and was in charge of foreign policy affairs for the same people who gave him these billions of dollars. IIRC the 666 deal happened while Kush was still in the fucking WH for chrissake. Conservatives are just projecting, as usual.

Olivier_Rameau on December 12nd, 2022 at 15:22 UTC »

That rescue entailed taking on a 99-year lease for the place, which had become an albatross around Jared & Co’s necks, and, The New York Times reported at the time, paying a whopping $1.1 billion in upfront rent

A 99 years lease paid upfront. In what world does that make sense?

MistressWinterStars on December 12nd, 2022 at 15:16 UTC »

"In letters sent to the Defense and State departments Monday night, the lawmakers requested material they believe could reveal if “Kushner’s financial conflict of interest may have led him to improperly influence US tax, trade, and national security policies for his own financial gain.” And the optics do not look great."