Robert Mueller Investigating Jared Kushner’s Finances

Special Counsel Robert Mueller has a Trump family member in the cross hairs.

Donald Trump Jared Kushner

In yet another new development in the rapidly unfolding investigation into Russian interference in the election and all of the things that seem to be tied to it, The Washington Post reported late yesterday that special counsel Robert Mueller is investigating the finances of Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner:

Special counsel Robert S. Mueller III is investigating the finances and business dealings of Jared Kushner, President Trump’s son-in-law and adviser, as part of the investigation into Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential election, according to U.S. officials familiar with the matter.

FBI agents and federal prosecutors have also been examining the financial dealings of other Trump associates, including former national security adviser Michael Flynn, former campaign chairman Paul Manafort and Carter Page, who was listed as a foreign-policy adviser for the campaign.

The Washington Post previously reported that investigators were scrutinizing meetings that Kushner held with Russians in December — first with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak, and then with Sergey Gorkov, the head of a state-owned Russian development bank. At the time of that report, it was not clear that the FBI was investigating Kushner’s business dealings.

The officials who described the financial focus of the investigation spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.

At the December meeting with Kislyak, Kushner suggested establishing a secure communications line between Trump officials and the Kremlin at a Russian diplomatic facility, according to U.S. officials who reviewed intelligence reports describing Kislyak’s account.

The White House has said that the subsequent meeting with the banker was a pre-inauguration diplomatic encounter, unrelated to business matters. The Russian bank, Vnesheconombank, which has been the subject of U.S. sanctions following Russia’s annexation of Crimea, has said the session was held for business reasons because of Kushner’s role as head of his family’s real estate company. The meeting occurred as Kushner’s company was seeking financing for its troubled $1.8 billion purchase of an office building on Fifth Avenue in New York, and it could raise questions about whether Kushner’s personal financial interests were colliding with his impending role as a public official.

Mueller’s investigation is in a relatively early phase, and it is unclear whether criminal charges will be brought when it is complete.

“We do not know what this report refers to,” Jamie Gorelick, an attorney for Kushner, said in an email. “It would be standard practice for the Special Counsel to examine financial records to look for anything related to ­Russia. Mr. Kushner previously volunteered to share with Congress what he knows about ­Russia-related matters. He will do the same if he is contacted in connection with any other inquiry.”

Kushner has agreed to discuss his Russian contacts with the Senate Intelligence Committee, which is conducting one of several investigations into Russian meddling in the 2016 election.

Kushner rarely speaks publicly about his role in the White House, but he has become a major figure in the administration with a sprawling list of policy responsibilities that includes Canada and Mexico, China, and peace in the Middle East.

Peter Carr, a spokesman for Mueller, declined to comment for this article but said that “the Special Counsel’s Office has undertaken stringent controls to prohibit unauthorized disclosures and will deal severely with any member who engages in this conduct.”

This isn’t the first time that Kushner’s name has come up in connection with the ongoing investigation. Several weeks ago, it was reported that a “senior White House official” was a “person of interest” in the investigation, and several days later it was reported that Jared Kushner was the “focus” of at least part of the investigation, although it wasn’t made clear at the time in what respect that was the case. Since then, there have been numerous reports that Kushner and his family apparently have financial ties to Russian banks and financiers who have a close relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Kushner, who retained private counsel with regard to these investigations weeks ago, hasn’t commented about any of these matters directly, and neither has his family. From the reports, though, it seems clear that Mueller and his team of investigators, which has expanded steadily in recent weeks to include not just allegations of Russian interference in the election and contacts between Russian officials and the Trump campaign but also an investigation of potential obstruction of justice by the President of the United States. Additionally, it is being reported that Mueller has hired thirteen lawyers to assist him in the ongoing investigation and that there are plans for more hiring in the near future, a sign that Mueller is gearing up for what is likely to be a long-term and wide-ranging investigation.

As I said when I first posted about Kushner’s potential involvement in this investigation, the fact that Trump’s son-in-law and, apparently, his family are part of Mueller’s investigation puts President Trump in a rather awkward position. Unlike other campaign officials such as Paul Manafort, Roger Stone, Carter Page, or Michael Flynn, Trump can’t exactly distance himself from his own son-in-law. Even if Kushner weren’t working in the White House and wasn’t apparently Trump’s go-to man on everything ranging from domestic policy to crafting a Middle East peace plan, There’s really no credible way to push him to the side or disassociate from him the way that Trump has with others in the past. If it does turn out that the investigation is moving closer to him, or to other matters dealing with the Trump family then the President is going to find himself in deeper trouble than he already is.

 

 

FILED UNDER: Law and the Courts, Middle East, US Politics, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Doug Mataconis
About Doug Mataconis
Doug Mataconis held a B.A. in Political Science from Rutgers University and J.D. from George Mason University School of Law. He joined the staff of OTB in May 2010 and contributed a staggering 16,483 posts before his retirement in January 2020. He passed far too young in July 2021.

Comments

  1. OzarkHillbilly says:

    And the hits just keep on coming.

  2. MarkedMan says:

    I suspect Trump has already told him to keep his mouth shut and he will pardon him if he gets indicted. If so, Kushner will have to weigh his options. Does he trust Trump or will Donnie throw him under the bus if he thinks it will save his own business? (Ok, it will take him about two seconds to decide on that question.) But since it is hard to imagine a scenario that saves Trump if Kushner goes down, maybe it’s worth chancing it for the possibility of a pardon? But what if Trump is not President when it comes down? And then there is the business side. His business is in bad enough shape due to his reckless decisions that it seems likely he approached the Russian government to bail him out. He’s not so stupid that he wouldn’t have realized the quid pro quo would be treasonous. Yet, unless all reports are wrong, he approached them anyway. And, whether he committed treason or not, at this point it seems hard to imagine that any legitimate firm would touch his business with a 100 foot pole, and more and more payments are due each week. So right now he’s gotta be wondering if there is anything that can save him from jail and his business from an epic failure. If I was a betting man, I’d say he goes for the Russian help, the funds are channeled through some sketchy country ina crude enough way the Feds nail him, and he ends up spending the next 15 to 20 years in jail, or 2 to 3 if he rolls over on his father in law. Decisions, decisions.

  3. michael reynolds says:

    Not a surprise. Kushner, like Trump, stays afloat by taking extremely questionable money from extremely questionable people. Never forget that Kushner is one of those who pushed Trump to fire Comey. Kushner knows perfectly well that his finances can’t get past the FBI and he was willing to take a stupid gamble in order to save his ass.

    As always, the actions of Trump and Kushner are 100% consistent with guilt, 0% consistent with innocence. They’re criminals and they know it. They’re just really incompetent criminals.

    If we actually accounted for Trump/Kushner’s debts there’s a good chance they both have negative net wealth. Minus dirty money they may be as poor as the dummies who’ll come along to defend them. Billionaires? No: con men.

  4. reid says:

    I always hated the phrase, but I’m starting to find an appreciation for “Drain the swamp!”

  5. Joe says:

    @reid:

    “l’éswamp, c’est moi”

    – D Trump

  6. MarkedMan says:

    @Joe: Joe, you win the internet today.

  7. Paul L. says:

    @OzarkHillbilly:
    Coming next from the Washington Post.

    The officials who were briefed on the investigation spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.
    Robert Mueller Investigating:
    Trump’s coordination with the perpetrator of the Inside Job/False Flag Terrorist Attack/Assassination attempt against the Republicans.
    The True Trump Dossier.
    Tape of Donald Trump peeing on and being peed on by Russian Prostitutes.

  8. michael reynolds says:

    @Paul L.:

    Show me a single WaPo story on Trump-Russia that is wrong.

    And be very careful, because Mangolini is likely to contradict you at any minute. In the course of a week the Trumpkins have gone from, 1) Trump has been cleared! To, 2) Trump is not being investigated! To, 3) Trump is being investigated and it’s all Mueller’s fault! To, 4) Trump is being investigated and it’s all the fault of his own deputy Attorney General!

  9. JKB says:

    Washington Post/New York Times:

    Trump has always been under investigation

    Oh and,

    All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others

  10. Jen says:

    What I can’t seem to reconcile is how Kushner and Trump have managed to evade problems with the government for as long as they have. Trump is audited pretty much every year because of his creative accounting. I suspect Kushner is probably in the same boat. As Michael notes, both are known to have accessed financing from some questionable sourcing–one would think that money from Russian mob ties would have been an issue for them long before now. They couldn’t possibly have been so stupid as to up the ante during the glare of a political campaign, could they?

  11. Gromitt Gunn says:

    I remain firmly convinced that anyone with a legitimate professional background of any kind ( (outside of the right wing media sphere) who agreed to become a Trump political appointee is going to come to regret having this albatross of an administration on their resume. And if this investigation ends the way I suspect that it will, most of the higher ups in the Trump Organization are going to discover why the adage “sunlight is the best disinfectant” exists.

  12. michael reynolds says:

    @Joe: @MarkedMan:

    The question is, how long do I have to wait before I can steal that line and pretend it’s mine?

  13. KM says:

    @Jen:

    They couldn’t possibly have been so stupid as to up the ante during the glare of a political campaign, could they?

    Yes.

    They are that stupid (or as they would think of it, ballsy). The whole point of this was the grift since they certainly don’t seem to be doing anything else. They’ve been very blatant about the fact that they plan to profit off the Presidency in every possible way – they just never thought they’d actually get the jackpot and so weren’t as careful as they would have been to run a long con.

  14. Paul L. says:
  15. CSK says:

    @KM:

    Indeed. Part of Melania Trump’s lawsuit against the blogger who claimed she had been a paid escort was the contention that a slur such as this would prevent her from monetizing (to the tune of millions of dollars) her role as First Lady. That was later removed from the complaint. At whose behest, I couldn’t say. But it was certainly a clear enough statement of Mrs. Trump’s intent to use her position for immense profit.

  16. MarkedMan says:

    @Paul L.: not sure where you are coming from here, but my understanding is that a significant number of things in that dossier have been shown to be credible. Are you disagreeing with that?

  17. michael reynolds says:

    @Paul L.:
    Yeah, I got news for you – multiple elements of the dossier have been proven.

    But I’m sure you welcome further investigation, right? I mean Mueller will prove Trump innocent. Right?

    You know who hates investigations? Guilty people.

  18. michael reynolds says:

    @MarkedMan:
    He doesn’t know, he’s not even following things, he’s just regurgitating Breitbart etc… Trumpies can’t actually follow the story because if they did it would destroy their religious faith in Dear Leader.

  19. CSK says:

    Kushner appears to be stupid–his daddy had to bribe Harvard to let him in (which is not to Harvard’s credit, though I understand the lure of a multi-million dollar pay-off)–so it follows that he’d be a stupid crook, doesn’t it?

  20. Just 'nutha ign'int cracker says:

    @JKB:

    All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.

    I’m not sure how your personal philosophy plays into this question. Please go into more detail.

  21. Tony W says:

    Trump’s personal lawyer has now hired his own lawyer. I guess this is the jobs-growth Trump promised?

  22. Jen says:

    @Tony W: LOL. Full employment program for the legal profession. Have to start somewhere on the jobs front, I guess…

  23. Gustopher says:

    Kushner is Jewish, right?

    Feed the alt-right a little anti-semitism, and the Israel First crowd a bit of “pragmatic cutting our losses, but let’s give more guns to Israel”, add in a little “Trump cares more for the country than his family” and I think he can get his son-in-law under a bus.

  24. gVOR08 says:

    @Jen:

    What I can’t seem to reconcile is how Kushner and Trump have managed to evade problems with the government for as long as they have. Trump is audited pretty much every year because of his creative accounting.

    Trump has a corps of tax accountants and lawyers. The IRS doesn’t really have the resources to deal with this. With malice aforethought the GOPs have been cutting IRS budgets for decades with this as their goal. Forensic accountants from the FBI on the other hand…

    Yes, they probably were stupid enough, and more to the point arrogant enough, to walk right into this, and, as you say, even aggravate it. The dumb fwck still has no idea what the president does. He probably thought being prez was a sure way to prevent an audit.

  25. CSK says:

    @Gustopher:

    The fact that Trump’s son-in-law is an Orthodox Jew, that Ivanka converted to Orthodox Judaism before she married Kushner, and that Eric Trump married a Jewish woman in a Jewish ceremony has always been a huge problem for the alt-right. The alt right hates Jews more than they hate blacks and Hispanics, since they see Jews as those who incite blacks and Hispanics to “make trouble for white people.” The alt right does not consider Jews to be white. Nor, in fact, do they believe that anyone not of pure Anglo-Saxon or Germanic heritage should be permitted to be a U.S. citizen.

  26. Jen says:

    @gVOR08:

    He probably thought being prez was a sure way to prevent an audit.

    Oh, dear. I think you could be right. Well, this is what happens when a cult drinks its own Kool-Aid. They all thought that Obama was the Imperial President (TM), commanding departments to do his bidding, and that’s how he “got away” with all of his anti- constitutional meddling. It’s going to be like hitting a brick wall when Trump finally realizes that the presidency is not only the world’s largest fishbowl, it’s also the world’s most litigious fishbowl, and the taxpayers are footing the bill–so you can’t just out-threaten the opposition. He’s about to get a quick lesson on what it’s like to be on the other side of a well-funded opposition.

  27. HarvardLaw92 says:

    @CSK:

    The alt right hates Jews more than they hate blacks and Hispanics

    Well, we do secretly control the world and all 🙄

  28. Kylopod says:

    @CSK:

    The alt right hates Jews more than they hate blacks and Hispanics, since they see Jews as those who incite blacks and Hispanics to “make trouble for white people.”

    It’s not that simple.

    First of all, in recent decades parts of the white nationalist movement have attempted to forge ties with certain right-wing Jews. One of the best-known WNs in this country is Jared Taylor, whose American Renaissance conference has featured Jewish speakers alongside anti-Semitic ones. (Naturally, the two don’t always get along.) While it’s true that anti-Semitism was traditionally a very central component of white nationalism, and it continues to be among a lot of WNs to this day, some of them have moved on to other, “hotter” hatreds, especially anti-Islamism (which has a lot in common with anti-Semitism, enough to make it a suitable modern replacement for some).

    Even more overtly anti-Semitic WNs such as David Duke and the current head of the American Nazi Party enthusiastically supported Trump knowing full well about Ivanka & Kushner. These people are vile, but they aren’t stupid. They aren’t the sorts going around shouting “Aaah! A Jew!” every moment of their lives. At least from the time of Duke’s gubernatorial and presidential runs in the early 1990s, parts of the WN movement have aimed to influence the mainstream, which they recognize requires putting a respectable face on their bigotries. Before Trump, many of them were fans of such figures as Ron Paul and Glenn Beck. Even when a commentator isn’t being overtly anti-Semitic, they may hit on themes that appeal to the WNs, such as attacks on “globalism.” And like other dogwhistles, it gives them enough plausible deniability that it can make alliances with Jews possible.

    Breitbart, it’s important to realize, exists right at the border of this movement. It’s not overtly white nationalist. Bannon and Milo have spoken glowingly about something they call the “alt right,” but they usually try to downplay its racist components. And there are several Jews working there. Indeed, two of the most oft-cited examples of anti-Semitic articles–one describing Bill Kristol as a “renegade Jew” and another attacking Anne Applebaum as a “Polish, Jewish, American elitist”–were both written by Jews. The website has attacked blacks, Hispanics, and Muslims a lot more viciously.

    In any case, Ivanka & Kushner really haven’t given the anti-Semites much to get upset about. They never lift a finger to protest whenever the Trump Admin dips into neo-Nazi waters, as in the Holocaust Remembrance Day speech that didn’t mention Jews. They may be Orthodox, but they’re functioning essentially as House Jews. And the David Duke types realize it.

  29. Smooth Jazz says:

    “Robert Mueller Investigating Jared Kushner’s Finances”

    LOL, You far left zealots really need to get out more. What does Jared Kushner got to do with anything? I know it’s “Russia”, Russia” Russia” and more “Russia”. Putin may be a Communist hack, but he is right about one thing: When an FBI director leaks to a far left propaganda rag like the NY Times, the Director becomes more of a left wing activist than a dispassionate FBI officer.

    You all have gone from “Hillary’s Got This” to relying on an inside the beltway elite like Mueller who is best buddy with the fired FBI director and whose staff reads like a Who’s Who of Clinton Foundation hacks chasing imaginary rabbit holes, now that the ‘collusion” angle had been discredited.

    Really, you folks need to get a grip. The election is over. You guys, Nate Silver and the rest of the Hillary Got This crowd need to give it a rest and try again on 2020. Ayuh.

  30. HarvardLaw92 says:

    @Smooth Jazz:

    You guys, Nate Silver and the rest of the Hillary Got This crowd need to give it a rest and try again on 2020

    Sorry, but I think we’re going to stick with “endlessly harassing & distracting & goading Trump, crippling his ability to govern and splitting the GOP into warring factions” instead. If we get to piss people like you off in the bargain – well, that’s just icing on the cake.

    You might as well get used to it, because we’re just getting warmed up …

    We’re 6 months into this acid trip, and your entire legislative agenda is dead in the water, your president is at war with his own party, his administration is leaking like the Lusitania and the Rust Belt is still rusty. You might as well get used to that too.

    We did, after all, learn these tactics from you guys over the last 8 years. Hope you remembered to buy your popcorn & fasten your seatbelt, because it’s going to be one hell of a bumpy ride. 🙂

  31. MarkedMan says:

    @HarvardLaw92:

    Well, we do secretly control the world and all

    Read more: https://www.outsidethebeltway.com/robert-mueller-investigating-jared-kushners-finances/#ixzz4kDWKTo7q

    Oh. So do you guys have a complaints department? Because I’ve got some complaints…

  32. HarvardLaw92 says:

    @MarkedMan:

    1-800-BLD-BRGR 😀

  33. DrDaveT says:

    @HarvardLaw92:

    Well, we do secretly control the world and all

    Damn. You mean I went through that whole “initiation into the Bavarian Illuminati” thing for nothing???

  34. MarkedMan says:

    This is a good a time as any to own a really bad judgement call on my part. During the early stages of the Republican campaign. I remember stating a number of times (I think including here) that if Trump was in danger of winning the primary, never mind the presidency, he would drop out because he couldn’t be so stupid as to believe his business could survive the increased scrutiny of a presidential campaign. I think I’m still right about that piece. I don’t think Trump Inc or the Kushner business will be around in five years. But I was so, so very wrong about Trump not being stupid enough to think he could get away with it.

    Marshall’s Rule of Trump: Given anything to do with Trump, look at all possible motivations, then pick the stupidest one. That’s the correct one.

  35. HarvardLaw92 says:

    @DrDaveT:

    I wouldn’t say for nothing. I hear they have a decent buffet.

    Since we’re having fun:

    Why did G-d create Episcopalians?

    Because somebody had to pay retail … 🙂

  36. DrDaveT says:

    @Smooth Jazz:

    When an FBI director leaks to a far left propaganda rag like the NY Times

    Awesome.

    I don’t know whether to hope that you’re just a troll, or that you really think like this. Mostly, I want to be there when you try to have a conversation with an actual far-leftist. Preferably a Trotskyite. I think it would probably play like a scene from Fawlty Towers.

  37. Steve V says:

    Damn, everyone’s a left wing activist these days.

  38. michael reynolds says:

    @Smooth Jazz:
    You guys aren’t even fun to argue with anymore because you’re always six weeks late to the party, Which I suppose is what happens when you live in the Fox bubble. Go do some reading. Figure out the state of play and come back when you’ve caught up with the rest of the class.

  39. Scott O says:

    @Smooth Jazz: A few more quotation marks and you could get the Guinness.

  40. Kari Q says:

    @Jen:

    I found this article from Chris Ladd answered a number of questions for me:

    If you have accumulated a small fortune in your home currency through shady means you need a way to convert those gains into some legitimate form of wealth, preferably denominated in US dollars or Euros. A real estate investment might be ideal, even if the building itself is of marginal value and you never intend to darken its doors. These investors are not primarily concerned about profit. They are looking for discretion and convertibility. This business model is sometimes crudely described as “money laundering,” though if done carefully it is usually legal.

    Others know far more about this than I do, but if your lawyers know what they’re doing apparently it’s possible to pull some extremely shady deals that just barely stay to the right side of the law.

  41. Franklin says:

    @Smooth Jazz: It seems like people like you are more obsessed with the election than we have ever been. I suppose you think the Clinton Foundation closed, too?

  42. Mr Bluster says:

    When an FBI director leaks to a far left propaganda rag like the NY Times, the Director becomes more of a left wing activist than a dispassionate FBI officer.

    When it is discovered that a candidate for President USA is a self confessed sexual molester of women he remains a pervert no matter how many chumps in the electorate vote for him.

  43. rachel says:

    @MarkedMan:

    This is a good a time as any to own a really bad judgement call on my part. During the early stages of the Republican campaign. I remember stating a number of times (I think including here) that if Trump was in danger of winning the primary, never mind the presidency, he would drop out because he couldn’t be so stupid as to believe his business could survive the increased scrutiny of a presidential campaign.

    It may have been bad judgement on your part, but it definitely was worse judgement on his part and that of every member of his family and business circle who supported his run for president.

  44. Jen says:

    @Kari Q:

    if your lawyers know what they’re doing apparently it’s possible to pull some extremely shady deals that just barely stay to the right side of the law.

    Yes, of course–I assumed as much. What I couldn’t figure out is why anything additional would surface now, but I think that others have nailed it: the IRS can only spend so much time/money/effort to unwind this stuff. Mueller has all the time in the world.

    On Kushner, and what he has to do with anything: Kushner’s finances and contacts with the Russians are under scrutiny, but Kushner is also tied tightly into the campaign operations through the data analytics firm they used. Kushner could well be the nexus between using the results of the Russian hacking and the campaign. At least one other Republican campaign has admitted to contacting the Russians to get the information that was leaked–DNC voter files–and then using that information to run their race. The question then becomes what constitutes collusion?

    For all of the Smooth Jazz types out there–giving it a rest isn’t an option, this is just too entertaining. 🙂

  45. CSK says:

    I don’t think it’s been noted here yet, but Trump’s lawyer Michael “What I’m Going to Do to You Is Disgusting” Cohen has hired his own lawyer: Stephen Ryan of McDermott Will & Emery.

  46. James Pearce says:

    @Smooth Jazz:

    The election is over.

    Tell the President, dude.

    So much effort fighting the press and defending Russia. Absolutely none on the wall. How’s your Muslim ban doing? Is America great yet?

  47. Just 'nutha ig'nint cracker says:

    @HarvardLaw92: Wow! Cleaver. And so quick, too! Tres bien!

  48. gVOR08 says:

    @MarkedMan: Lawrence O’Donnell got it wrong too, and a deal more publicly. He said Trump would never make the necessary financial filings to stay in the primaries because they’d show he wasn’t really worth 10 billion. Lawrence, and many others, appear to have been guilty of not realizing these statements wouldn’t be seriously audited and Trumpsky could get away with less than the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. Forensic accountants from the FBI may may work out differently.