Dean Obeidallah: Comer should probe Trump and Kushner’s Saudi ties if they care about 'influence peddling'

15 February 2023

When the 2022 midterms gave Republicans a small single-digit majority in the U.S. House of Representatives, they made it abundantly clear that investigating President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, would be a top priority. And sure enough, Rep. James Comer — the Kentucky Republican who now chairs the House Oversight Committee — is leading a Hunter Biden probe.

In a letter sent to the president’s son on February 8, Comer claimed that he "peddled influence to generate millions of dollars for the Biden family." Comer CC’d Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Maryland), a ranking House Oversight Member, in the letter.

Radio host Dean Obeidallah discusses Comer’s Hunter Biden probe in an op-ed published by CNN’s website on February 13. And Obeidallah, a former attorney who hosts a show on SiriusXM, stresses that where "influence peddling" is concerned, Comer should be taking a close look at members of the Trump and Kushner families — especially their ties to the Saudi royal family.

"If Comer is sincere about transparency and accountability when it comes to influence peddling in politics,” Obeidallah writes, “then he should be readying similar letters to Jared Kushner, Ivanka Trump and Donald Trump. All three may have personally profited from their time in the White House."

Obeidallah recommends that Comer carefully read a "blockbuster Washington Post article" published on February 11. Journalist Michael Kranish, in that piece, reported, "The day after leaving the White House, Kushner created a company that he transformed months later into a private equity firm with $2 billion from a sovereign wealth fund chaired by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman."

Obeidallah explains, "If Comer reads this article, he will see red flag after red flag of how Kushner and Trump potentially pocketed money from recent business deals with the Saudi government after helping Saudi Arabia and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, widely known as MBS, while in the White House…. As the Post details, Kushner and Trump both were facing ‘unprecedented business challenges’ when they left the White House. Trump had seen revenue from his properties dramatically decline, plus the controversy surrounding the January 6, 2021 attack made him toxic, according to the Post."

The radio host continues, "Kushner was facing his own challenges, with his family business needing a $1.2 billion bailout, the newspaper reported. Then came Saudi Arabia and MBS to the rescue."

Obeidallah notes that Donald Trump and Kushner have been staunch defenders of MBS — even after the 2018 murder of Washington Post opinion columnist Jamal Khashoggi. That year, Khashoggi, a native of Saudi Arabia and outspoken critic of the Saudi royal family, was murdered inside the Saudi embassy in Istanbul, Turkey. MBS has denied having anything to do with Khashoggi’s murder.

Former President Trump, Obeidallah points out, "wasn’t shy" about "what he did for MBS" when he told veteran journalist and author Bob Woodward, "I saved his a**."

"Now, we see Trump hosting Saudi-backed LIV Golf tournaments at his golf courses — which typically pay the course owner in the case of PGA events $2 million to $3 million, as the Post reported," Obeidallah comments. "However, Trump has not revealed how much he’s pocketing from the Saudis — which is especially alarming given he is running for president in 2024…. If Comer is sincere, we should be seeing letters demanding the same information from Kushner, Trump and daughter Ivanka as he sent to Hunter Biden. If not, then we know the congressman is doing nothing more than using our tax dollars to try to hurt the president and help the GOP."

Read Dean Obeidallah’s full op-ed for CNN at this link.

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