The Senate Finance and House Foreign Affairs Committees have begun an investigation into Jared Kushner’s family’s sudden windfall that helped the Kushner family meet a $1.2 billion payment due on their property at 666 Fifth Avenue in New York City, the Financial Times reports.
A large sum of money was secured by Brookfield Asset Management from Qatari interests as the Trump Administration put pressure on the Qatari government and backed a Saudi blockade of the nation.
Kushner, married to outgoing president’s Donald Trump’s favorite child and a senior advisor to the president, was deeply involved in negotiations with Middle Eastern leaders at the time, and members of Congress are looking into the possibility that US foreign policy was shaped by Kushner’s desire to secure funds to bail out his family business.
“While Brookfield has claimed that Qatari representatives had no involvement in the 666 Fifth Avenue transaction,” Democratic Senator Ron Wyden and Representative Joaquin Castro wrote, “we remain troubled that Qatari funds ended up in a billion-dollar rescue for a company directly tied to Jared Kushner…. Federal criminal conflicts of interest statutes for senior White House officials extend not only to matters affecting their own financial interests, but that of their direct relatives.”
In 2018, Brookfield Asset Management, based in Canada, leased property in the tower, paying $1 billion in advance for a century of rent. The money came from a fund BAM managed which has $1.8 billion in Qatari assets in it.
US government policy in 2017 was to discourage a Saudi blockade of Qatar. Then-Secretary of State Rex Tillerson made that position clear to the Saudis, only to have Trump undermine that policy later the same day.
As the due date for the mortgage on 666 Fifth Avenue approached and Kushner was negotiating with Middle East leaders, Trump again shifted policy to a more-Qatari friendly position, suspiciously when the payment was made on the Kushner property.
Wyden and Castro wrote to a White House lawyer as they requested information, “The stunning reversal in US policy towards Qatar raises serious questions about what role Jared Kushner — and the financial interests of his family — may have played in influencing US foreign policy regarding the blockade.”