A biographer who covered Jared Kushner's real estate company compared his past financial woes to a "ticking time bomb" in relation to his alleged dealing with Qatari interests.
The Kushner Company, a family business for which former President Donald Trump's son-in-law now serves as president, was facing a $1.4 billion debt payment in 2017 for a property at 666 Fifth Avenue in New York City. Around that time, Kushner—then working as a senior advisor to Trump with a focus on Middle Eastern matters—visited Qatar to discuss a blockade imposed against the country, alongside Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
Following the year, the Qatar blockade was lifted, with President Trump reversing his earlier support of his arrangement. Around the same time, according to The Real Deal, Brookfield Asset Management, paid $1.28 billion for a ground-floor lease at 666 Fifth, helping the company with its debt situation. The group's second-largest stakeholder at the time was the sovereign wealth fund of Qatar, leading some to accuse Kushner of trading favorable political maneuvers in order to help his family's business.
During a Sunday appearance on MSNBC, Vicky Ward, author of the 2019 biography Kushner, Inc., described the situation at the time as a "ticking time bomb" for Kushner and said that the situation was much more serious than the business dealing allegations against President Joe Biden's son, Hunter, as Kushner might have been negotiating favorable business deals while actively working for White House. She also noted, however, that the story would likely not get the media traction of the Hunter Biden story given its lack of "sex appeal."
"It's very, very serious that, as you said, it doesn't have the sex appeal of Hunter Biden, and the missing laptop, nude photos," Ward told host Medhi Hasan. "... As you very well demonstrated, it's a complicated story. But that does not mean it isn't a very, very serious investigation.
"If there were such a conflict of interest, if he did conduct foreign policy in the Middle East, particularly switching sides on that blockade of Qatar by the Saudis, basically to bail out his family business, that is a criminal offense. You know, the optics of all of this were always there. My book, Kushner, Inc., does, as you say, show Kushner's financial problems as this ticking time bomb."
The potential conflict of interest is currently under investigation by the Senate Finance Committee and House Oversight Committee
For its part, Brookfield Asset Management denied that any Qatari representatives were involved in the 666 Fifth Avenue deal. Ric Clark, chairman of the group at the time of the deal, explicitly claimed that there was no "quid pro quo."
Newsweek reached out to Kushner Companies for comment.
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
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Thomas Kika is a Newsweek weekend reporter based in upstate New York. His focus is reporting on crime and national ... Read more
