It’s a morning for reassurances. First Kellyanne Conway declared that the expulsion of Russian diplomats over the nerve agent attack on the UK means Trump never liked the Russians. Now White House Counsel Don McGahn has determined that $500 million in loans that Jared Kushner picked up after Trump moved into the White House is also no cause for concern.
In a statement from Kushner attorney Abbe Lowell to CBS News early Tuesday, Lowell says he confirms White House counsel has concluded there were "no issues involving Jared."
According to the company attorney, Jared Kushner had no involvement in the loans, and has no involvement with the business while acting as a senior adviser to Trump. But Kushner’s business isn’t something either hidden or fungible. He owns buildings. He knows where they are, and he knows how much he owes on them. Like Trump, pretending otherwise doesn’t reduce the chance that he will trade policies for profit.
Since the start of the Trump campaign, Kushner Companies has sought funds from at least seven countries and at least three sovereign wealth funds—including the fund of Qatar—to address the looming $1.2 billion loan that comes due in 2019. That loan was made to accommodate Jared Kushner’s giant gamble in buying the 666 Park Avenue office building without having a partner to cover the costs of the proposed reworking of the property.
The reassurance that Jared had done no wrong appeared to come in response to a request made to the Office of Government Ethics by Democratic Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi. The OGE replied that they would look into the loans. However, the Kushner Companies say they have not received a request from the OGE … so it’s not clear that today’s announcement constitutes an answer to Rep. Krishnamoorthi’s questions. It appears to be just the Kushner Companies saying that Don McGahn gave them an all-clear.
And if the White House counsel is fine with Jared’s activities this time, that hasn’t always been the case.
West Wing staffers were concerned that White House counsel Don McGahn would quit earlier this summer because of his frustration over meetings between President Donald Trump and his senior and adviser and son-in-law, Jared Kushner, The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday.
The concern then was that Kushner had conducted multiple meetings with Russians, including a meeting with the head of a sanctioned, Kremlin-backed bank. It’s a meeting that had very different purposes, depending on who was explaining …
The bank maintained this week that the session was held as part of a new business strategy and was conducted with Kushner in his role as the head of his family’s real estate business. The White House says the meeting was unrelated to business and was one of many diplomatic encounters the soon-to-be presidential adviser was holding ahead of Donald Trump’s inauguration.
Since that time, Kushner has apparently moved on from trying to get money from a bank that’s not allowed to do business in the United States and instead talked to Chinese investors and South Korea’s sovereign wealth fund. Most recently, Kushner’s father had a meeting with the finance minister of Qatar, just days before Kushner traveled with Trump to Saudi Arabia and apparently gave their blessings to both a mini-coup within Saudi Arabia and a blockade of Qatar by Saudi Arabia and the UAE. That visit has also been tied to actions of Trump fundraisers George Nader and Elliott Broidy, who had connections with both the Saudis and the UAE
Kushner’s frequent visits with now-Saudi Crown Prince bin Salman suggest that all of Kushner and Trump’s connections may have finally brought Jared to a source for his needed funds.
Since Trump ascended to the Oval Office, Kushner has worked to forge a strong relationship with Prince Mohammed, ostensibly as the two pursue their shared goal of ending the Israel-Palestine conflict. On Wednesday, the Intercept reported that the Saudi prince bragged about his ties to Kushner and claimed that he has the president’s son-in-law “in his pocket.” The two are said to have grown close during Trump’s inaugural overseas trip to Saudi Arabia; when Kushner took another, unannounced trip to Riyadh in October, they reportedly “stayed up until nearly 4 A.M. several nights, swapping stories and planning strategy.” According to sources who spoke to the Intercept, Prince Mohammed told confidants that while he was in Riyadh, Kushner—whose access to classified briefings was recently revoked by White House Chief of Staff John Kelly—provided him a list of names of individuals that were disloyal to him, cribbed from the President’s Daily Brief.
But if Don McGahn says there’s no problem then … no, definitely wait for the OGE report.
The loans directly cited in the request by Rep. Krishnamoorthi include $325 million from Citigroup and $184 million from Apollo Global Management. At least part of this seems to be bridge financing to keep the company moving in hopes of finding additional investment. Apollo Global Management is an “alternative investment manager” that often invested in companies under distress to secure partial ownership.