Trump names Jared Kushner’s father as US ambassador to France

Real estate developer Charles Kushner was pardoned by former president in 2020 after being convicted of witness tampering for luring his brother-in-law to meet with prostitute

Charles Kushner arrives for the funeral of Ivana Trump, July 20, 2022, in New York. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)
Charles Kushner arrives for the funeral of Ivana Trump, July 20, 2022, in New York. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)

WEST PALM BEACH, Florida (AP) — US President-elect Donald Trump said Saturday that he wants real estate developer Charles Kushner, father of Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, to serve as ambassador to France.

Trump made the announcement in a Truth Social post, calling Charles Kushner “a tremendous business leader, philanthropist, & dealmaker.”

Kushner is the founder of Kushner Companies, a real estate firm. Jared Kushner is a former White House senior adviser to Trump who is married to Trump’s eldest daughter, Ivanka. The younger Kushner played a large role in brokering the Abraham Accords, the 2020 peace agreement between Israel, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain.

The elder Kushner was pardoned by Trump in December 2020 after pleading guilty years earlier to tax evasion and making illegal campaign donations.

Prosecutors alleged that after Charles Kushner discovered his brother-in-law was cooperating with federal authorities in an investigation, he hatched a scheme for revenge and intimidation.

Kushner hired a prostitute to lure his brother-in-law, then arranged to have the encounter in a New Jersey motel room recorded with a hidden camera and the recording sent to his own sister, the man’s wife, prosecutors said.

In this March 4, 2005 file photo, Charles B. Kushner, flanked by his wife, Seryl Beth, left, and his attorney Alfred DeCotiis arrives at the Newark Federal Court for sentencing in Newark, New Jersey (AP /Marko Georgiev)

Kushner eventually pleaded guilty to 18 counts including tax evasion and witness tampering. He was sentenced in 2005 to two years in prison — the most he could receive under a plea deal, but less than what Chris Christie, the US attorney for New Jersey at the time and later governor and Republican presidential candidate, had sought.

Christie has blamed Jared Kushner for his firing from Trump’s transition team in 2016, and has called Charles Kushner’s offenses “one of the most loathsome, disgusting crimes that I prosecuted when I was US attorney.”

Trump and the elder Kushner knew each other from real estate circles and their children were married in 2009.

The Times of Israel Staff contributed to this report.

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