FOLLOW THE MONEY

House Committee Is Investigating $2B Saudi Investment in Kushner’s Firm

There is “the appearance of a quid pro quo for your foreign policy work,” Rep. Carolyn Maloney wrote to Kushner.

The House Committee on Oversight and Reform is investigating whether Jared Kushner used his position as senior adviser in the Trump administration to secure a $2 billion investment from a Saudi Arabian wealth fund. Kushner formed a private equity firm six months after leaving the White House, where he had oversight over Middle Eastern diplomacy and developed an unusually close relationship with Saudi Arabia’s de facto leader. Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY), leader of the committee, sent Kushner an eight-page letter requiring that he provide documents related to the Saudi fund’s investment in his firm within two weeks. Maloney also asked for personal communications between Kushner and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. In the letter, Maloney specified that the committee is investigating whether Kushner’s own financial interests influenced his foreign policy decisions while he worked in the White House and wrote that there is “the appearance of a quid pro quo for your foreign policy work.” The committee is examining whether the U.S. needs stricter laws curtailing former public officials’ ability to do business with past government partners.