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babylonsister

(170,955 posts)
Sat Mar 3, 2018, 03:16 PM Mar 2018

Jared Kushners Conflicts of Interest Reach a Crisis Point

https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/jared-kushners-conflicts-of-interest-reach-a-crisis-point/amp?__twitter_impression=true

Jared Kushner’s Conflicts of Interest Reach a Crisis Point
John Cassidy
March 2, 2018 9:15 AM
Not only has Kushner’s presence in the White House made a mockery of federal guidelines designed to prevent nepotism and conflicts of interest, it has also raised national-security concerns.

snip//

Kushner, who, unlike his father-in-law, can be prosecuted for violating federal conflict-of-interest laws, also promised to recuse himself from any government matters related, directly or indirectly, to his financial interests. It turns out that this recusal was also conveniently limited. Thanks to that same report in the Times, we know that it didn’t prevent Kushner from taking meetings at the White House with top executives from two financial firms—Citigroup and Apollo Commercial Real Estate Finance—that lent more than half a billion dollars to two Kushner family ventures in which, according to federal filings, he still owns a direct stake. One is a skyscraper in Chicago and the other is a collection of office buildings in Brooklyn.

Kushner’s personal lawyer, Kushner Companies, and the two firms all insisted to the Times that nothing untoward had taken place. They are asking us to believe that the meetings at the White House were not connected to the loans, which were extended during the normal course of business, with Kushner playing no role in soliciting or negotiating the deals. “Stories like these attempt to make insinuating connections that do not exist to disparage the financial institutions and companies involved,” a spokesperson for Kushner Companies told the Times.

Actually, it is primarily Kushner’s behavior and position that have been called into question. Even if he didn’t discuss any personal business with Joshua Harris, one of the founders of Apollo’s parent company, or with Michael Corbat, Citigroup’s chief executive, it’s hard to believe that he was unaware of the huge amounts of credit being extended to his family’s real-estate empire and its business partners by their firms. In most Administrations, senior officials routinely do due-diligence checks before meeting with individuals representing industrial or financial interests. Kushner appears to have blithely ignored this custom, just as, earlier, he failed to fulfill the requirement that people seeking security clearance complete official forms assiduously.

The issue goes well beyond casual oversights. Not only has Kushner’s presence in the White House made a mockery of federal guidelines designed to prevent nepotism and conflicts of interest, it has also raised national-security concerns. Many foreign governments view him not merely as a privileged son-in-law who lucked into the role of senior Presidential adviser but as a privileged son-in-law who lucked into the role of senior Presidential adviser and is desperate to raise large sums of money. In other words, he’s an easy target.

snip//

After observing Kushner being hit with a security-clearance downgrade and the damaging back-to-back stories in the Post and the Times, many political observers are now questioning his future in the White House. On Thursday, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the White House press secretary, said, “Jared is still a valued member of the Administration,” and added that he “will continue in his current role.”

It wasn’t the most ringing endorsement, and there is some speculation that Kushner and his wife, Ivanka, are, like Hope Hicks, on their way out. Whether or not that will happen, who can say? But it certainly should. Having one cash-needy real-estate developer in the White House was always going to present big problems. Having two of them has turned out to be an outrage.
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Jared Kushners Conflicts of Interest Reach a Crisis Point (Original Post) babylonsister Mar 2018 OP
If he worked for Hillary in the WH there would be 23 investigations going on, instead of NONE Eliot Rosewater Mar 2018 #1
You may be correct about "independent investigations"...but... Stuart G Mar 2018 #2
He would never have been hired by Hillary vlyons Mar 2018 #4
This is going to make great fodder for the nov. congressional elections: They do lindysalsagal Mar 2018 #3

Eliot Rosewater

(31,096 posts)
1. If he worked for Hillary in the WH there would be 23 investigations going on, instead of NONE
Sat Mar 3, 2018, 03:21 PM
Mar 2018

there are NO independent investigations of Kushner or any of the other criminals.

weird

Stuart G

(38,357 posts)
2. You may be correct about "independent investigations"...but...
Sat Mar 3, 2018, 03:35 PM
Mar 2018

There is one that could put Kushner in jail for a very long time. And that one is going on now and is led by a very well known investigator. Perhaps, just perhaps, that is the only one that is needed..

vlyons

(10,252 posts)
4. He would never have been hired by Hillary
Sat Mar 3, 2018, 03:40 PM
Mar 2018

just on the basis that he's a slum lord, and can't pass a background check. Say what you will about Hillary, she is 1,000 times smarter than the while Trump mob put together. And so am I, and so is every single DUer.

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