Senators probe Kushner ties

Senate Democrats are pressing Jared Kushner and his firm, Affinity Partners, over Gulf fundraising that overlapped with his work on U.S. Middle East policy. (finance.senate.gov) On March 19, Senator Ron Wyden and Representative Robert Garcia said Kushner had been soliciting billions of dollars from Middle Eastern sovereign wealth funds while also co-leading Trump administration negotiations in the region. They sent letters to the White House and to Affinity seeking records and asking what safeguards separated his government work from his fundraising. (finance.senate.gov) (oversightdemocrats.house.gov) The immediate trigger was reporting that Kushner was trying to raise at least $5 billion more for Affinity from governments in the region, including contacts tied to Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund. That Saudi fund had already put about $2 billion into Affinity soon after Kushner left the White House in 2021. (democracynow.org) (statement.com) The questions in Congress center on whether a former senior White House adviser can seek money from foreign state funds while also helping shape U.S. policy toward the same governments. Wyden and Garcia said the overlap raises conflict-of-interest and national-security concerns. (finance.senate.gov) (oversightdemocrats.house.gov) The scrutiny widened on April 17, when Representative Jamie Raskin, the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, opened what his office called a sweeping investigation into Kushner’s “foreign entanglements” and requested documents about his investment firm and government service. (democrats-judiciary.house.gov) This is not a new line of attack. Wyden said on March 19 that he had already investigated Kushner in 2020 over whether Kushner advised Trump to back the blockade of Qatar while Kushner Companies was seeking financial help tied to 666 Fifth Avenue. (finance.senate.gov) Garcia’s office also tied the new inquiry to earlier Democratic efforts over Kushner’s post-White House finances, including a 2024 push for a hearing on what the committee called possible influence peddling and quid pro quos. His office said Affinity received billions in foreign funding from Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund shortly after Kushner left government. (oversightdemocrats.house.gov) Kushner founded Affinity Partners in 2021, and the firm’s Saudi backing has shadowed it since the start. Reporting in 2022 said Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund committed $2 billion even after advisers to the fund raised concerns about risk and Kushner’s limited private-equity track record. (middleeastmonitor.com) (forbes.com) Kushner and the White House have denied wrongdoing in past rounds of ethics criticism, and Democrats do not control either chamber’s agenda on their own. For now, the inquiry is a demand for records and explanations, with the next test being whether Congress can force more disclosure from Kushner, Affinity, or the administration. (dnyuz.com) (finance.senate.gov)