Kushner sought $500m loan from Qatari investor – report
Trump’s son-in-law said to have played major role in hardline US stance on Doha months after his financing request was turned down
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Senior White House adviser Jared Kushner unsuccessfully sought a $500 million investment from a top investor in Qatar just months before his father-in-law, US President Donald Trump, urged Gulf States to impose a blockade on Doha, according to a report Monday in the Intercept news website.
Kushner’s real estate firm had been in pursuit of a loan from Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim al-Thani to help pay off a New York City skyscraper, which Kushner had bought in 2007 using half a million dollars of his family’s cash and $1.3 billion in borrowed money.
The Qatari national had agreed to make the property investment on the condition that the family raise the remaining sum of cash, the report said.
Kushner then approached the Beijing-based Anbang Insurance Group, and in March Bloomberg reported that the two sides had reached a deal regarding the high-profile property on 666 Fifth Avenue.
However, when Kushner was named a White House adviser, Anbang, which has close ties to the Chinese government, pulled out of the agreement over growing concerns of a conflict of interests.
After that, talks with al-Thani broke down as well.
In June, Trump boasted that his Middle East visit the previous month and his calls for an end to state funding of “radical ideology” were what prompted Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates to cut ties with Qatar over terrorism links.
“During my recent trip to the Middle East I stated that there can no longer be funding of Radical Ideology. Leaders pointed to Qatar – look!” he tweeted.
The Intercept said that Kushner was a major factor in the White House’s tough posture on Qatar – not however, linking the policy directly to the failed skyscraper investment.
During my recent trip to the Middle East I stated that there can no longer be funding of Radical Ideology. Leaders pointed to Qatar – look!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 6, 2017
The story came amid reports of Kushner’s involvement in a meeting between Donald Trump Jr. and a Russian attorney with alleged links to the Kremlin during the presidential campaign.
According to the New York Times on Monday — reporting on the June 9, 2016, meeting between Trump Jr. and the Russian lawyer for the third consecutive day — the president’s eldest son was told in an email preceding the meeting with lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya that the material was part of a Russian government effort to aid his father’s candidacy for president.
In a statement, Trump Jr. said he had asked Kushner and then-campaign manager Paul Manafort to attend but did not tell them what the meeting was about.
Unlike Kushner, Trump Jr. does not serve in the administration and is not required to disclose his foreign contacts.
Kushner’s lawyer, Jamie Gorelick, said her client already disclosed the meeting in a revised filing of a form that requires him to list meetings with foreign agents.
“Mr. Kushner has submitted additional updates and included, out of an abundance of caution, this meeting with a Russian person, which he briefly attended at the request of his brother-in-law, Donald Trump Jr. As Mr. Kushner has consistently stated, he is eager to cooperate and share what he knows,” she said.
The Times of Israel Community.