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Did Jared Kushner's desperate bid for money to cover his family company’s colossally bad investment in 666 Fifth Avenue ultimately influence the Trump administration's foreign policy? That's one question Robert Mueller's investigators are looking into, writes NBC.
Special counsel Robert Mueller's team has asked witnesses about Kushner's efforts to secure financing for his family's real estate properties, focusing specifically on his discussions during the transition with individuals from Qatar and Turkey, as well as Russia, China and the United Arab Emirates, according to witnesses who have been interviewed as part of the investigation into possible collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign to sway the 2016 election.
As part of the scrutiny of Kushner's discussions with Turks, federal investigators have reached out to Turkish nationals for information on Kushner through the FBI's legal attache office in Ankara, according to two people familiar with the matter. Separately, Qatari government officials visiting the U.S. in late January and early February considered turning over to Mueller what they believe is evidence of efforts by their country's Persian Gulf neighbors in coordination with Kushner to hurt their country, four people familiar with the matter said. The Qatari officials decided against cooperating with Mueller for now out of fear it would further strain the country's relations with the White House, these people said.
Perhaps you recall that sudden shift in foreign policy last summer when Trump fingered Qatar, a longtime U.S. ally in the Middle East, for funding terror? Per usual, it didn't seem particularly smart or well planned. Here's an AP account from June 9, 2017:
Launching an extraordinary allegation against a key U.S. military partner, Trump derided what he called Qatar's "extremist ideology in terms of funding" terrorist groups, an accusation Qatar has repeatedly and vehemently denied. [...]
It wasn't immediately clear how Trump's sharp condemnation might affect U.S. cooperation with Qatar, which hosts some 10,000 U.S. troops and a major U.S. air base that serves as a staging ground for operations in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan. The Qatari Embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Only an hour before, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson had issued a very different message, calling on the Arab nations to immediately ease their blockade on Qatar.
Trump's summer policy shift jibes with the timing of Kushner's failed Qatari negotiations.
Kushner's family real estate business, Kushner Companies, approached Qatar multiple times, including last spring, about investing in the company's troubled flagship property at 666 Fifth Avenue in New York, but the government-run sovereign wealth fund declined, according to two people familiar with the discussion. Another discussion of interest to Mueller's team is a meeting Kushner held at Trump Tower during the transition in December 2016 with a former prime minister of Qatar, Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber Al Thani, or HBJ, according to people familiar with the meeting. [...]
In the weeks after Kushner Companies' talks with the Qatari government and HBJ collapsed, the White House strongly backed an economically punishing blockade against Qatar, led by Saudi Arabia and the UAE, citing the country's support for terrorism as the impetus.
Gives one the sinking feeling that this may have been just one of many instances where Trump's seemingly inane, off-the-cuff policy pronouncements were purely a function of advancing family interests. Less “America First” than Trump & Co. first. "Make America Great Again for the Trumps" may have been tastefully pared down for broader mass appeal.