Jared Kushner might be behind one of the Trump admin’s most egregious misuses of power
One of Kushner’s most notable contributions to Trump’s agenda on Saudi Arabia was shielding MBS’s reputation after the firestorm of controversy tied to the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. After U.S. intelligence reports indicated that MBS ordered the operation to assassinate Khashoggi , the U.S.’s relationship with Saudi Arabia came under fire from both parties. But Kushner defended Saudi Arabia and arms deals with the Gulf country after the ordeal.
The newly reported deal looks quite a lot like MBS wanted to return the favor for all the political back-scratching. Here’s what makes it feel so obvious: It’s a bad deal for MBS financially. Kushner is inexperienced in private equity , and the seriousness of his new outfit was questionable. So questionable, in fact, that when MBS’s vetted the funds tied to Kushner’s firm, a screening panel expressed concerns about the wisdom of such an investment after finding a bunch of major problems.
But MBS overruled the screening panel and went ahead with the investment anyway, and it appears to be the main source of investment for Kushner’s outfit, according to the Times. Strikingly, it’s twice the amount that was invested in the fund of another Trump official, former Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, around the same time, despite the fact that Mnuchin is a highly successful investor.
Why would Kushner’s investment firm get such a sweetheart deal? The simplest answer is that it's a reward for Kushner’s diplomatic affection for MBS. Maybe it was even discussed during those late night strategizing sessions. Who knows! Notably if MBS and Kushner wanted to avoid the optics of impropriety, they might’ve held off on the deal even if it made sense financially. The fact that they went ahead anyway speaks to the open air of apparent corruption that the Trump era helped normalize.
Equally worrying is that, as mentioned above, our government does not have in place safeguards to protect against this kind of activity in the future. It’s yet another vulnerability our government has to corruption from people who think of government as something to exploit rather than serve.
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