11 September 2016 Karlie is at the US Open with sketchy wealthy and elite people:
The Who’s Who of Who’s That
[I know you know these vignettes are meant to be scanned. We're just putting Karlie Kloss and Lily Donaldson into context (we're working toward that, anyway). Get a sense of the wealth, the connections, the sketchy deeds. We're working back to modeling, yacht girls, and then how that relates to Taylor's (possible, and sometimes alleged) ex-girlfriends]
Jared Kushner
In her own words:
Kushner's lawyers said that the omissions [of his business ties] were "an oversight",[245] and that "a member of [Kushner's] staff had prematurely hit the 'send' button" before the form was completed.[242]
In May 2017, Kushner's attorney Jamie Gorelick told Reuters that Kushner had participated in "thousands of calls in this time period" and did not recall any with Kislyak.[122]
Known for:
His father’s felonies, being a slum lord, marrying into the Trump family.
Assets:
Kushner's fortune primarily comes from his senior position with his family's real-estate business, Kushner Companies.
At Harvard, Kushner bought and sold real estate in Somerville, Massachusetts, as a vice president of Somerville Building Associates (a division of Kushner Companies), returning a profit of $20 million by its dissolution in 2005.[14][15][16]
Kushner bought The New York Observer in 2006 for $10 million. A former associate told Time magazine that his father, Charles Kushner, bought the paper for his son as a "graduation present."
He took over the company after his father Charles Kushner was convicted for 18 criminal charges
Following his father's conviction and subsequent incarceration between March 4, 2005, and August 25, 2006, Jared set about expanding the business and acquired almost $7 billion in property over the next ten years, much of it in New York City.[21]
He assumed the role of CEO in 2008.
One of Kushner's largest assets is the real-estate investment platform he co-founded with his brother Joshua, namedin 2006 and in 2007, his company bought 666 Fifth Avenue, a 41-story building for a then-record price of $1.8 billion, most of it borrowed.[23]
Following the property crash in 2008, the cash flow generated by the property was insufficient to cover its debt service, and the Kushners were forced to sell a controlling stake in the retail footage to The Carlyle Group and Stanley Chera[25] and bring in Vornado Realty Trust as a 50% equity partner in the ownership of the building.[26]
By that time, Kushner Companies had lost more than $90 million on its investment.[27]
In 2011, Kushner purchased a 130,000 square foot office tower at 200 Lafayette Street in Manhattan for $50 million, selling it two years later for $150 million.[29][30]
In 2013, his company led a transaction to purchase the Jehovah's Witnesses headquarters in Brooklyn Heights for $375 million and invested $100 million into the site, transforming it into a sprawling office park, and signing online retailer Etsy to a 10-year lease.[31][32]
The same year, Kushner co-founded WiredScore, a global organization that provides a digital connectivity certification rating the quality and resilience of digital infrastructure in buildings.[33]
Throughout 2013 to 2014, Kushner and his company acquired more than 11,000 units throughout New York, New Jersey, and the Baltimore area.[34]
In August 2014, Kushner acquired a three-building apartment portfolio in Middle River, Maryland, for $38 million with Aion Partners, later selling the complex for $68 million.[35]
In 2014, Kushner, with his brother Joshua and Ryan Williams, co-founded Cadre (now RealCadre LLC), an online real-estate investment platform.
His business partners included Goldman Sachs
and billionaire George Soros, a top Democratic Party donor.[37][38][39]
In early 2015, Soros Fund Management financed the startup with a $250 million credit line.[37][40]
Kushner did not identify these business relationships in his January 2017 government financial-disclosure form.[37][41]
In May 2015, he acquired a 50.1% stake of the Times Square Building from Africa Israel Investments Ltd. for $295 million.[36]
Her husband Jared, in his own financial disclosures in 2017, put his net worth at $325 million.
While noting that “it is difficult to calculate net worth” using financial disclosure forms, the Washington Post estimated that during 2017, Kushner and his wife Ivanka Trump made $82 million in outside income at the same time that they served as senior White House advisors.[97]
Kushner and Ivanka's lawyers asserted that their net worth had largely remained the same.
In 2021, Kushner set up an equity firm Affinity Partners with a $2 billion investment from Saudi Arabia whose crown price he worked closely with while at the White House and derives most of its funds from Saudi government's sovereign wealth fund.
Rub Elbows with:
His father was friends with Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton and attended several dinners with them.
In 2007 he interned at Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau's office, and with the New York law firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison.[19]
Sergey N. Gorkov, a trained Russian spy who then headed Vnesheconombank (VEB), a Russian state-owned bank.[123][126][127] met with Kushner on a private matter concerning his family's real estate corporation, Kushner Companies
Kushner and Ivanka dined with Chinese president Xi Jinping and his wife
He called Lockheed Martin CEO Marillyn Hewson to ask for a lower price on a radar system to detect ballistic missiles.[89][90]
Within the Trump administration, Kushner had been a staunch defender of Saudi ruler Mohammed bin Salman.[90]
Kushner developed personal relationships with leaders in the Middle Eastern region, including Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
Kushner traveled to Israel to talk to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu[153] (with whom Kushner has long standing personal links and family ties).
Critics raised concerns about the extent to which personal relationships influenced U.S. foreign policy decisions. Amal Khashoggi, a Saudi Arabian journalist and critic of the Saudi government, was killed inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Turkey, on October 2, 2018.
The circumstances surrounding his death sparked international outrage and condemnation, and critics have questioned whether Kushner's relationship with MBS influenced the Trump administration's response to the murder or its broader policy towards Saudi Arabia.
Troubles/(Alleged) Crimes:
Father of both sons Charles Kushner, was convicted of:
Witness Retaliation: He hired a prostitute to seduce his brother-in-law, recorded the encounter, and sent the tape to his sister as an attempt to silence his brother-in-law, who was cooperating with federal investigators.
Illegal Campaign Contributions: Kushner pled guilty to making illegal campaign contributions by contributing to candidates under the names of employees who did not actually make the contributions.
Tax Evasion: He also pled guilty to tax evasion for failing to report more than $1 million in charitable contributions and other expenses.
In "The Price of Admission," Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Daniel Golden implied that Kushner's acceptance at Harvard may have been tied to a $2.5 million gift his parents gave to the school [in 1998, shortly prior to Jared’s acceptance in 1999].
Kushner Co.-
Tenant Harassment and Poor Living Conditions:
Kushner Companies, where Jared Kushner was previously CEO before divesting upon entering the White House, has faced accusations of tenant harassment and poor living conditions in some of its properties.
There have been reports of aggressive eviction practices, lack of maintenance, and inadequate responses to tenant complaints.
Rent Overcharges and False Filings:
In New York City, Kushner Companies was sued by tenants alleging rent overcharges and harassment.
There were also allegations that Kushner Companies filed false paperwork with the city claiming there were no rent-regulated tenants in buildings when, in fact, there were.
Federal Loan Programs:
There have been concerns raised about Kushner Companies' use of federal loan programs intended to benefit low-income communities, such as the EB-5 visa program.
Critics have accused Kushner Companies of potentially using these programs to finance projects that primarily benefit wealthy investors rather than fulfilling the program's intended goals.
It has been alleged that Kushner used the Observer as propaganda against rivals in real
White House Activities-
Jared Kushner had been a lifelong Democrat, and donated to Democratic politicians, prior to his father-in-law Donald Trump entering politics.[58] Kushner graduated from Harvard with honors in 2003, with a BA degree in government.[17][18] After expressing disappointment with Obama, however, he registered as an independent in 2009 and endorsed Republican U.S. presidential nominee Mitt Romney in 2012 via the New York Observer.[61] In 2014 he continued to donate to Democratic groups,[60] but joined his father-in-law Donald Trump's nascent US presidential campaign in the field of the Republican candidates in 2015.[66] Kushner had no prior involvement in campaign politics before Trump's campaign.[67] He eventually registered as Republican in 2018. Kushner, the son of a felon and real estate magnate, came to the White House from his previous position as an executive in the family business, often playing the role of slumlord.
Project Alamo
From the outset of the presidential campaign of his father-in-law Donald Trump, Kushner was the architect of Trump's digital, online, and social media campaigns, enlisting talent from Silicon Valley to run a 100-person social-media team dubbed "Project Alamo."[68]
The digital team tested more than one hundred thousand ad combinations a week
raising more than $250 million in small-dollar donations in the closing months of the campaign.
Kushner's "sprawling digital fundraising database and social media campaign" has been described as "the locus of his father-in-law's presidential bid."[75]
Andrew Bosworth, Facebook's top advertising executive during the 2016 campaign cycle, called it the “single best digital ad campaign I’ve ever seen from any advertiser.”[69][70]
The Trump campaign again claimed that a tweet featuring an image of Clinton and a six-sided star that read “Most Corrupt Candidate Ever!” was not in fact the Judaic Star of David, but rather a "basic star," such as those sported by sheriffs. The tweet was widely interpreted as an anti-Semitic dog whistle. The image had previously appeared on a white supremacist website though it's not clear where the candidate obtained the image. Trump subsequently deleted his post.
Responding to his own paper's editorial by Dana Schwartz criticizing Kushner's involvement with the Trump campaign[78] on July 5, 2016, Kushner wrote an open letter in the New York Observer.
He addressed the controversy around a tweet from the Trump campaign containing allegedly anti-Semitic imagery. In the letter, Kushner wrote, "In my opinion, accusations like 'racist' and 'anti-Semite' are being thrown around with a carelessness that risks rendering these words meaningless."[79]
Raised in a Modern Orthodox Jewish family,[9] Kushner graduated from the Frisch School, a Modern Orthodox yeshiva high school, in 1999. His paternal grandparents, Reichel and Joseph Kushner, were Holocaust survivors who came to the U.S. in 1949 from Navahrudak, now in Belarus.[5][6] Reichel, described as the family's matriarch, led efforts during the Holocaust to escape from the Navahrudak ghetto by digging a tunnel.
In an interview, Jared defended the Trump administration's decision to drastically reduce the number of refugees accepted by the United States (the lowest level in 40 years).[103]
His estranged cousin Marc responded to the op-ed on Facebook that his lesson from the story of his grandparents was to renounce hate.[80]
Campaign
Kushner has also helped as a speechwriter, and was tasked with working to establish a plan for Trump's White House transition team.[72]
He had been intimately involved with campaign strategy, coordinating Trump's visit in late August to Mexico.
He is believed to be responsible for the choice of Mike Pence as Trump's running mate.[68][74]
Jared at one point was seen as its de facto campaign manager.
former Google CEO Eric Schmidt told Forbes, "Best I can tell, he actually ran the campaign and did it with essentially no resources."[76]
Federal Election Commission filings indicate the Trump campaign spent $343 million, about 59 percent as much as the Clinton campaign.[77]
Kushner, together with Paul Manafort and Brad Parscale, hired Steve Bannon's firm Cambridge Analytica to support the Trump campaign.[71]
Revenge Firing
An anonymous source familiar with the transition told Politico, "Jared doesn't like Christie... He's always held [the prosecution of his father] against Christie."[111] Kushner was reportedly an influential factor behind the firing of New Jersey governor Chris Christie as head of the transition team, as well as the dismissal from the Donald Trump transition team of anyone connected to Christie.[109][110]
Kushner told Forbes that the reports that he was involved in Christie's dismissal were false: "Six months ago, Governor Christie and I decided this election was much bigger than any differences we may have had in the past, and we worked very well together. ... I was not behind pushing out him or his people."[112]
In his memoir Christie said that Steve Bannon fired him at Trump Tower but that Kushner had his firing ordered as revenge for what Christie had done to Kushner's father Charles Kushner for several felonies.[113][114]
Nepotism
a 1967 anti-nepotism law which forbids public officials from hiring family members, and explicitly one's son-in-law, in agencies or offices they oversee.[234]
The law was passed in response to President John F. Kennedy's decision to appoint his brother, Robert F. Kennedy, as attorney general in 1961.[235]
However, on January 20, 2017, the Department of Justice Office of Legal Counsel issued an opinion stating the anti-nepotism law does not apply to appointments within the White House,[236][237]
after Kushner's lawyer, Jamie Gorelick claimed the 1967 law does not apply to the White House because it is not an 'agency'.[238]
Among other precedents, the OLC opinion invoked a 1993 D.C. Circuit Court ruling that enabled Hillary Clinton to serve within the White House during the Clinton administration.[239]
Kushner was sworn in on January 22, 2017[240] and was given the office which is physically the closest to the Oval Office.[241]
Tasked with solving everything from the opioid crisis to modernizing the federal government to criminal justice reform to Middle East peace to the coronavirus pandemic. He solved almost nothing, but he did reportedly help secure a pardon for his father.
Security Clearance Issues
There were reports that Kushner initially had difficulty obtaining a permanent security clearance due to concerns over his foreign contacts and business ties. This led to accusations of nepotism and improper influence in the clearance process.
When he first joined the administration, Kushner failed to disclose his ownership of a real estate investment startup called Cadre.
He eventually admitted to having a major ownership stake.
Cadre benefits from the "opportunity zones" program championed by none other than Ivanka Trump.
Disclosures list the values of nebulous LLCs — they don’t say where their money is coming from. We know they did a lot of business overseas, but there’s very little knowledge of whose money flowed where.
When Trump and Kushner entered the administration, Kushner’s stake in Cadre was valued between $5 million and $25 million.
The value would rise to $25 million to $50 million.
Despite the fact that the top White House ethics official determined at one point that it was “reasonably necessary” for him to divest from Cadre in order to do his job at the White House, he never did.
However, he did not actually sell off his assets or set up a blind trust with outside management.
Instead, he transferred ownership of some of his assets to his brother
and to a trust overseen by his mother rather than selling off his assets to a third party or setting up a blind trust with outside management.
The New York Times reported that Kushner managed to retain "the vast majority of his interest in Kushner Companies. His real estate holdings and other investments are worth as much as $761 million."[259]
Disclosures he was required to make show that Kushner still receives millions of dollars a year in income from rent collected by his assorted real estate portfolio.[260]
For example, only a few months into the administration, Kushner’s sister was pitching Chinese investors on the Kushner Companies’ ties to him as well as a program that would help them get visas by investing in the family business.
If that sounds illegal to you, that’s because it very well could be. And despite being told at one point by ethics officials that he should sell his share in Cadre, Kushner never did. By the time he left the White House, his Cadre stake was worth between $25 million and $50 million.
Trump was reported to have requested the top-secret security clearance for Jared to attend the presidential daily intelligence briefings as his staff-level companion, along with General Mike Flynn, who already had the clearance prior to his resignation.[83]
On February 28, 2019, CNN (citing three anonymous sources) and The New York Times (citing four anonymous sources) reported that in May 2018 Trump ordered Kelly to grant Kushner a top-secret clearance, which Kelly contemporaneously documented in an internal memo. Reportedly, this was the first time any U.S. president had intervened in such a way.[251]
But HER emails
When Kushner would communicate with foreign leaders, he sometimes did so off government servers using encrypted apps, meaning we have no idea if the business ever came up. That’s a potential national security risk.
In a statement, Abbe Lowell, Kushner's lawyer, admitted that Kushner had intermittently used private e-mail for official White House business. He stated no classified or privileged information was used on this account.
While a White House official, Kushner used WhatsApp to conduct government business, raising concerns among cybersecurity experts that sensitive government communications could be vulnerable to exploitation by foreign governments and hackers.[264]
Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman was reportedly one of the individuals that Kushner contacted through WhatsApp
In January 2020, UN investigators said that there was evidence that bin Salman was involved in the hacking of Jeff Bezos's phone through WhatsApp communications, advising that Kushner and others in contact with the Crown Prince should take measures to protect their communications.[265]
During the campaign for the 2016 presidential election, Trump repeatedly criticized his opponent Hillary Clinton for her use of personal e-mail in her role as Secretary of State, which involved the transmission of classified information over a server Clinton had set up in her basement.[100]
Russian Interference Investigation
Kushner's meetings with Russian officials during the 2016 presidential campaign and transition period were scrutinized as part of investigations into Russian interference in the election. He was not charged with any crimes related to these interactions.
Cyber attack meeting
In June 2016, an agent of Emin Agalarov reportedly offered Donald Trump Jr., Kushner's brother-in-law, compromising information on Hillary Clinton from the Russian government if he met with a lawyer connected to the Kremlin.[118] A meeting took place on June 9, 2016.[119]
According to the Mueller Report, Kushner arrived at the meeting and quickly grew aggravated, texting Paul Manafort that it was a “waste of time,” and emailing two different assistants to call him so he would have an excuse to leave the meeting. Investigators did not identify any follow up from the meeting.[121]
The Democratic National Committee cyber attacks were revealed later that week.[118]
Secret Communications Channel
Between April and November 2016, Kushner had two undisclosed phone calls with the Russian ambassador, Sergey I. Kislyak.[122] In December 2016, Kushner met with Kislyak.[123]
That month, U.S. intelligence officials who were monitoring Kislyak reportedly overheard him relaying to Moscow a request from Kushner to establish a "secret and secure communications channel" with the Kremlin using Russian diplomatic facilities.
Kislyak reportedly was "taken aback by the suggestion of allowing an American to use Russian communications gear at its embassy or consulate – a proposal that would have carried security risks for Moscow as well as the Trump team".[124][125]
Kushner Co. + Russian Spy
Also in December 2016, Kushner met with Sergey N. Gorkov, a trained Russian spy who then headed Vnesheconombank (VEB), a Russian state-owned bank.[123][126][127]
Former White House press secretary Sean Spicer said that Kushner met with Gorkov briefly as part of his role in the transition, and as a diplomatic conduit to the State Department.[128]
However, VEB has stated that Gorkov met with Kushner on a private matter concerning his family's real estate corporation, Kushner Companies, even though VEB has been under international sanctions since July 2014.[129]
The Mueller investigation examined this meeting and could not confirm VEB's account. The Mueller report did state, however, that it was unable to find evidence that there was any follow up between Kushner and Gorkov after the meeting.[121]
Russia Collusion
On December 1, Flynn pleaded guilty to one count of lying to the FBI, as part of a plea bargain. Bloomberg reported that Kushner is most likely the "senior member of the Trump transition team," mentioned in Flynn's plea documents, who is said to have ordered Flynn to contact Russia.[134]
Hindering an Investigation
In October 2017, the Senate Judiciary Committee requested numerous documents from Kushner. Kushner's attorneys gave the committee documents on November 3, but the committee followed up on November 16 with a request for many additional documents it said had not been produced.[132]
In June 2019, Republicans and Democrats on the Senate Intelligence Community made a criminal referral of Kushner to federal prosecutors on concerns that his testimony was contradicted by Richard Gates, a former Trump campaign aides, although the referral did not accuse Kushner of making false statements.[142]
The transcript of Kushner's interview with FBI investigators was not publicly released in January 2020 as ordered by a federal judge, as the Justice Department stated it required a security review by an unnamed intelligence agency.[139] The transcript was released on February 3, redacted nearly in its entirety.[140][141]
Business activities in China
On April 6, 2017, the same day that Kushner and Ivanka dined with Chinese president Xi Jinping and his wife at a dinner hosted by the president at Mar-a-Lago, the Chinese government provisionally approved three new trademarks for the Ivanka Trump brand[262] giving it monopoly rights to sell Ivanka Trump brand jewelry, bags and spa services in the world's second-largest economy.[261]
In May 2017, the Wall Street Journal reported that he had failed to disclose all required financial information in his security clearance applications, including that he owes $1 billion in loans.[41][96]
Arms Sales
Kushner helped broker the sale of $100+ billion of arms to Saudi Arabia, and during a meeting with Saudi officials at the White House to finalize the deal, he called Lockheed Martin CEO Marillyn Hewson to ask for a lower price on a radar system to detect ballistic missiles.[89][90]
In June 2017, Saudi Arabia and the UAE had implemented a naval blockade on Qatar, accusing them of aiding terrorist groups, and reportedly planned to invade Qatar.[98]
During the dispute, Jared had backed the Saudis and Emiratis in the conflict, undermined efforts by then Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to stop the blockade and to bring the conflict to a peaceful outcome, and pressured President Donald Trump to back the Emiratis and Saudis in the dispute, which the President did, according to the NYTimes.[99]
Within the Trump administration, Kushner had been a staunch defender of Saudi ruler Mohammed bin Salman.[90] In 2021, Kushner started an investment firm, Affinity Partners. He sought funds for the new company through the sovereign wealth funds of Gulf countries.[227][228]
The fund plans to invest Saudi money into startup companies in Israel.
According to the Wall Street Journal, "The decision marks the first known instance that the Saudi Public Investment Fund’s cash will be directed to Israel, a sign of the kingdom’s increasing willingness to do business with the country, even though they have no diplomatic relations."[230]
Advisers for the Public Investment Fund, the Saudi government's sovereign wealth fund, expressed several concerns about the transaction
including the inexperience of Affinity management
the degree of risk to be assumed by the Saudi kingdom
an "excessive" management fee
and a finding that Affinity's operations were "unsatisfactory in all aspects".
However, PIF management overruled them and invested $2 billion in Kushner's firm, only six months after Kushner had left the White House.[90]
The firm primarily depended on Saudi money, as, by April 2022, it only had $2.5 billion under its management.[90]
According to ethics experts, the investment created the appearance of potential payback for Kushner.[90]
The House Oversight Committee said on June 2, 2022, that it had opened an investigation into whether Kushner had traded on his government position to get the deal.[229]
“Peace in the Middle East”
Kushner was a key architect of the Trump administration's plan, despite the fact that Kushner had no foreign experience or experience in the Middle East.[150][151][152]
In an interview, Kushner said he had "been studying this now for three years", and that he had "read 25 books on it, I've spoken to every leader in the region, I've spoken to everyone who's been involved in this."[157]
Also known as the "Peace to Prosperity" plan. Critics, including Palestinian leadership, argued that the plan heavily favored Israel
On August 24, 2017, Kushner traveled to Israel to talk to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu[153] (with whom Kushner has longstanding personal links and family ties, causing Palestinians to distrust him[154][155]).
Kushner Companies has received investments from Israeli financial institutions and individuals
raising concerns about potential conflicts of interest between Kushner's official duties and his family's business interests.
The plan was criticized for its perceived imbalance and lack of consultation with Palestinian leaders.
The plan, which was endorsed by the Israeli government, offered the Palestinians a conditional path to an independent state with defined borders.
It has been characterized as requiring too few concessions from the Israelis and imposing too harsh requirements on the Palestinians.[158]
It did not adequately address Palestinian aspirations for statehood and self-determination.
Donald Trump formally unveiled a plan authored by Kushner in a White House press conference alongside Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu on January 28, 2020; while representatives from the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Oman attended the event.
Palestinian representatives were not invited.[156]
Both the West Bank settlers' Yesha Council[159] and the Palestinian leadership rejected the plan: the former because it proposed a path to a Palestinian state,[159] the latter arguing it is too biased in favor of Israel.[156]
Reaction was muted among the Arab states, although Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar, Bahrain, Egypt, Lebanon issued statements expressing appreciation for the effort.
The proposal gave American approval for Israel to annex its settlements in the West Bank, contingent on Israel and the United States agreeing to a concrete map for the contested areas within the West Bank and Jerusalem.[160]
As part of the agreement, Netanyahu suspended the annexation of West Bank settlements, which the Kushner peace plan had approved months earlier.[168]
COVID-19 Response
Jared was initially advising Trump that the media was exaggerating the threat of the disease.
Xenophobic Speech
Kushner helped write the Oval Office address that President Trump gave to the nation on March 11, 2020, along with Trump's advisor Stephen Miller.[199] Drafts of the address were not shared with any of the staff working on the coronavirus task force. In the address, Trump blamed Europeans and the Chinese for the virus, describing the virus as a "foreign virus".[201] The speech caused markets to plunge, as White House aides had to clarify what the actual policy was. European leaders said they were blindsided by the address.[202] The speech set off panic among Americans abroad who had to scramble to learn whether they could return to the United States and under what circumstances; this created chaos at airports in Europe and the United States.[203]
Privatizing Public Health
At Trump's order, Kushner set up what has been described as a "shadow task force," separate from the official coronavirus task force chaired by Vice President Mike Pence.[194][195] Jared eventually became a leader in the federal effort to procure medical supplies and develop a vaccine as a founding board member on Operation Warp Speed. The Washington Post wrote that Kushner, had "zero expertise in infectious diseases and little experience marshaling the full bureaucracy behind a cause." During the pandemic, Kushner relied on a team of volunteers from consulting and private equity firms who had little relevant experience in dealing with a pandemic.
According to The Washington Post, numerous rudimentary initiatives proposed by Kushner interrupted the work of other government officials who were seeking to manage the U.S. response to the coronavirus pandemic.[192] The New York Times reported that one way that Kushner was seeking advice on how to deal with the coronavirus outbreak was to ask his brother's father-in-law, a physician, for recommendations. The physician then proceeded to crowdsource advice on a Facebook group for physicians.[197] There were criticisms regarding his role in coordinating federal resources and policies during the pandemic, including allegations of mismanagement and favoritism.
Conflict of Interest (specific to Covid)
Trump falsely claimed that Google was "quickly developing" a website that could help test people for coronavirus.[193] Trump also announced a project intended to set up testing sites across parking lots across the United States, taking the state and federal health care workers who oversee the project by surprise.[193] A March 13 press conference revealed it had been a project between the government and Oscar Health, a company that Kushner had ties with. Kushner's brother, Joshua, co-founded and owns Oscar Health, and Kushner himself was a partial owner of the firm before joining the White House. The website was quickly scrapped.[206]
Favoritism
Their first assignment was to facilitate the search for medical supplies and protective equipment, with their performance receiving criticism for favoritism shown to Trump associates.[194][196] The team was intended to assist in procuring PPE, but the team struggled to do so.[215] The New York Times wrote that the search for supplies was "fumbling" and that "personal relationships and loyalty are often prized over governmental expertise, and private interests are granted extraordinary access and deference."[216] Kushner's volunteer team advised senior officials in New York that Yaron Oren-Pines, a Silicon Valley engineer, could produce 1,000 ventilators. New York officials assumed that the team had vetted him and gave him an $86 million contract to produce the ventilators; no ventilators were produced.[216][217] Kushner said, "The notion of the federal stockpile is that it's supposed to be our stockpile. It's not supposed to be states' stockpiles that they then use."[209] In late April 2020, the Department of Defense revealed that the federal government had less than 10,000 ventilators remaining in the strategic national stockpile, far short of the anticipated need.[211] At that time, Governor Andrew Cuomo projected that New York would need 37,000 ventilators.[212] New Jersey, Louisiana, and Michigan also requested thousands of ventilators.[213] The Trump administration, however, refused to empty the stockpile to fulfill these requests, claiming that the states needed far fewer than they were projecting. Kushner described the administration's response to the coronavirus as "a great success story."[214]
Hypocrisy/Fraud
In May 2020, Kushner reportedly told those involved in the coronavirus response that the coronavirus was under control and that there would not be a second wave. By June 2020, cases were surging in the United States.[218] It was revealed that businesses owned by the Kushner family obtained coronavirus relief, which raised concerns with potential conflicts of interests due to Kushner's White House role.[219]
Secret Service
Jared Kushner was in the list of 13 family members and three Cabinet appointees, who were granted security for additional six months after Donald Trump left the White House, a dispensation which had also been granted to Sasha and Malia Obama.[269]
In May 2021, four months after Donald Trump had vacated the Presidency, the Daily Beast reported Kushner's Secret Service security team accompanied him to Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, incurring US State Department costs of $12,950.
Kushner cited the requirement of high security for which a total of 50 "room nights" at $259 each were booked between May 5 and 14 at Abu Dhabi's Ritz-Carlton hotel.
Ethics watchdogs raised concerns of financial connections between Kushner and the UAE, citing that former Senior Advisor to the US president was believed to be "particularly manipulable" by the UAE. A month before Trump left office, Kushner's last overseas trip cost US taxpayers around $24,335 in hotel costs alone.[270]
Ameliorations:
His parents are also prominent Democratic Party fundraisers and were the biggest contributors to Hillary Clinton's 2000 Senate campaign.
Jared had donated over $10,000 to Democratic campaigns[59] starting at the age of 11.
In 2008, he donated to the campaign for Hillary Clinton
and his newspaper the New York Observer endorsed Barack Obama over John McCain in the 2008 United States presidential election.[60]
Sources:
https://www.politico.com/news/2016-elections/203
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jared_Kushner
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