Two congressional committees headed by Democrats reportedly ask in new letters whether Jared Kushner was led “to improperly influence U.S. tax, trade and national security policies” to bail out his family’s real estate business.
The new inquiry centers on the Canadian company Brookfield Asset Management’s $1.2 billion lease of a New York City office building, for which the Kushner family took out a loan that it was in danger of defaulting, The Washington Post reported Wednesday. The 99-year leasing deal went through in 2018.
In letters sent Monday to the Departments of Defense and State, lawmakers from the Senate Finance and House Oversight committees reportedly cited newly disclosed communications as the reason asking whether money from Qatar helped finance the transaction.
Brookfield Asset Management reportedly claimed “no Qatar-linked entity” was involved in those negotiations, though the Post said the Qatar Investment Authority has a stake in an investment arm of the Toronto-based multinational company.
A letter to Brookfield co-authored by Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden in October alleges the company’s claims “turned out to be false” and accused its officials of “stonewalling.”
Brookfield told the Post it has been “fully transparent and responded to all requests,” claiming its dealings with the Kushner family were based on the merits of that building as an investment.
Neither the Qatar Investment Authority nor the Kushner family addressed the matter, though Kushner Properties reportedly said in 2018 there was no Qatari connection to the deal.
Kushner, 41, married Ivanka Trump in 2009 and served her father Donald Trump’s president’s administration in various capacities between 2017 and 2020.
His father, Charles Kushner — a convicted felon pardoned by Trump in 2020 — met with Qatar’s finance minister and discussed the Fifth Avenue property in 2017, but reportedly told the Post he wouldn’t have taken money from the oil-rich nation because it would put his son in a difficult position in his new job.
In his work as a Trump adviser, Kushner was involved in Middle East policy that impacted Qatar. He was photographed seated alongside the country’s Prime Minister Sheikh Khalid bin Khalifa bin Abdulaziz Al Thani last month at the World Cup soccer tournament, which is taking place in Qatar. He also worked to end a blockade of Qatar imposed by neighbouring nations in 2021.
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