'Corrupt': Jared Kushner’s overseas business deals under fire as Trump runs for president

15 March 2024

Former President Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner (who was also a senior adviser in his White House) has been ramping up his overseas business dealings undeterred by the optics of doing so in the midst of his father-in-law's presidential campaign.

A Friday report in the New York Times scrutinized Kushner's real estate deals in Balkan countries of Albania and Serbia, in which he stands to reap significant financial benefits once they're completed. The Times reported that Kushner has been working with Richard Grenell, who was Trump's former acting Director of National Intelligence who also served as German ambassador and a special envoy to the Balkans.

Notably, two of the three projects Kushner is aiming to finalize this year involve the transfer of land currently owned by Albania and Serbia, meaning a member of the president's immediate family (Kushner is married to Trump's daughter, Ivanka) stands to receive money directly from foreign governments. According to the Times, the first project involves redeveloping an island off the Albanian coast into a high-end luxury resort, and the second would be a 1,500-unit apartment building, museum and luxury hotel in the Serbian capital city of Belgrade. The third — which doesn't involve a direct land acquisition from a foreign government — is a planned resort development in coastal southern Albania.

Kushner has been capitalizing on his foreign connections since leaving the White House. After Kushner's departure became official, he launched his investment firm, Affinity Partners, which received a $2 billion investment from Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund as well as from other foreign business interests in the United Arab Emirates and Qatar.

The former president's son-in-law worked closely with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin-Salman while he was in the White House, as Trump frequently put him in the driver's seat in negotiations with Middle Eastern countries. In 2018, bin-Salman was accused of playing a direct role in the dismemberment and murder of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi (President Joe Biden made it clear in 2022 that the Saudi crown prince was immune from any legal action in relation to Khashoggi's assassination).

The Times quoted an unnamed source who claimed that Grenell — whose Balkan connections likely helped Kushner secure his business deals in Albania and Serbia — hopes to be appointed secretary of state should Trump retake the presidency in November. Public Citizen president Robert Weissman called on Kushner to "freeze any new investment plans" pending the result of the election, saying they were unethical given his father-in-law's ongoing campaign.

"This particular investment plan seems to involve the worst of every corrupt tendency of the Trump administration and Trump family," Weissman told the Times.

Meanwhile, Republicans continue to investigate Biden's son, Hunter, for his own foreign business deals even as Kushner plows ahead in the Balkans. House Oversight Committee chairman Rep. James Comer (R-Kentucky) and House Judiciary Committee chairman Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) both maintain that the president improperly influenced foreign governments in his son's favor, though their respective investigations have yet to yield any smoking gun evidence.

Comer and Jordan both relied heavily on a confidential FBI informant's testimony in what's known as a "1023 report" as the basis of their investigations, in which both Joe and Hunter Biden were accused of soliciting $10 million in bribes from Ukrainian officials. However, the source of that report, Alexander Smirnov, was later indicted for lying to investigators regarding that claim, and he has since been exposed as having contact with "high-ranking" members of Russian intelligence agencies.

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