As first reported by Rolling Stone, Jared Kushner, former President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, received $2 billion in funding from the Saudi government for his private-equity fund shortly after leaving the White House.
The deal was pushed through by Mohammed bin Salman, the Saudi crown prince who had developed close ties to Kushner. Democrats on the House Oversight Committee are now calling for an investigation into Kushner’s financial dealings, particularly his $3 billion private equity fund, Affinity Partners.
The fund was largely funded by foreign governments, and Democrats are seeking records that have been requested for over a year.
The Democrats are particularly interested in the $2 billion investment from Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, which is chaired by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. MBS had extensive contact with Kushner while he was serving under Trump as a senior advisor, and reportedly boasted that Kushner was “in his pocket.”
While in government, Kushner pushed for Trump to make Saudi Arabia his first overseas trip, and personally intervened to get MBS a better price from Lockheed Martin on a $110 billion arms deal.
Despite the brutal dismemberment of Jamal Khashoggi, a Saudi dissident journalist and US resident, Kushner continued to talk to MBS by voice and text message without looping in officials from the National Security Council, according to reporting by the New York Times.
Some Saudi officials were reportedly hesitant to entrust Kushner with billions of dollars in public money due to his inexperience and Affinity’s high management fees. However, MBS intervened to push the deal through, according to the Times’ reporting.
Affinity Partners now has an office in Miami and employs dozens of staffers, including a two-star general who helped Kushner broker the Abraham Accords and a number of former Trump White House staffers. The fund has not yet responded to a request for comment.
The GOP-led committee’s ongoing inquiry into Hunter Biden has been criticized by Democrats, who are accusing the GOP of attempting to distract from Kushner’s dealings.
While Rep. Comer, the committee’s GOP chairman, has himself said that Kushner’s dealings “crossed the line of ethics,” he did not sound enthusiastic about the Democrats’ request for an investigation into Kushner’s financial dealings.
