Benzinga - by Shanthi Rexaline, Benzinga Editor. Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner continues to be embroiled in controversy over accepting a $2 billion investment from Saudi Arabia.
What Happened: The fact that the Senate has not started a hearing on Kushner's Saudi connection is surprising, said former Senator Claire McCaskill in an interview with MSNBC on Thursday. There's “a blinking red light” around Kushner, she said.
Kushner was tapped “to run a huge portfolio in a government where he has no experience,” the ex-senator said. “Running government policy in the Middle East peace process — no experience,” she said.
What Kushner did was become “best buddies with the crown prince of Saudi Arabia” and got Trump to go to Saudi Arabia for his first trip, McCaskill said. Furthermore, Kushner had Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in the White House dining room, she added.
The minute Trump left office, Kushner started a private-equity fund and asked the crown prince for $2 billion in funding, the former Congresswoman said. She noted that the committee that ran the sovereign wealth fund for Saudi Arabia had said it was “a really bad idea.”
The crown prince, she said, came and overruled the committee's decision and gave $2 billion to Kushner.
McCaskill noted that former Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin similarly went to the crown prince for funding for his investment company and flaunted his Trump connection. Mnuchin received only $1 billion and was paid less in management fees, she said.
“This is a huge scandal. I do not understand why the Senate is not doing a hearing on all of the Trump grift,” she added.
Why It's Important: Kushner crossed the line of ethics by accepting the $2 billion Saudi investment, said House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky) last week. Incidentally, Comer is leading a probe into President Joe Biden's son Hunter Biden’s financial dealings overseas.
The Bidens received money while Joe Biden was serving as vice president, while Kushner received the $2 billion investment, including a $25 million in annual management fees, six months after Trump left office, Comer said.
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