Jared Kushner wasn’t bluffing when he said that he would focus more of his time and energy on his investment firm. However, his efforts have been heavily scrutinized, especially after scoring a whopping $2 billion investment from a fund owned by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman just six months after relinquishing his post at the White House.
Multiple people suspected that it was a form of corruption, with Ben Rhodes, a former deputy national security advisor to Barack Obama, telling MSNBC that the investment had an ulterior motive. “The Saudis didn’t make a $2 billion investment because they trusted in Jared Kushner’s investment expertise,” he said. “They’re making an investment on what they think he can do for them if there is a second Trump term.” Law professor Kathleen Clark, a government ethics expert, echoed this sentiment to The New York Times, stating, “The reason this smells so bad is that there is all sorts of evidence he did not receive this on the merits,” she said.
Kushner, of course, insists that his investment dealings is completely separate from his government service. “If you ask me about the work that we did in the White House, for my critics, what I say is point to a single decision we made that wasn’t in the interest of America,” he said at an Axios-sponsored summit and went on to express trust in doing business with the Saudi Prince. (via CBS News). “I know the person who I dealt with. I think he’s a visionary leader. I think what he’s done in that region is transformational.”
