Two prominent Democratic lawmakers are urging the Justice Department to go after former president Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner over his business dealings with Saudi Arabia.
Senator Ron Wyden (D., Ore.) and Representative Jamie Raskin (D., Md.) wrote a letter Thursday asking Attorney General Merrick Garland to create a special counsel to investigate whether Kushner is acting as an agent of the Saudi government.
“While on the Saudi government’s payroll, Mr. Kushner is simultaneously serving as a political consultant to former President Trump and acting as a shadow diplomat and political advisor to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman and other foreign principals,” the lawmakers wrote.
“Despite being engaged in plainly political activities, Mr. Kushner has not made [Foreign Agents Registration Act] disclosures to DOJ related to the millions of dollars he receives annually by entities owned and controlled by the governments of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar,” they added.
The Foreign Agents Registration Act makes it illegal to act as a foreign principal without registering wit the federal government and disclosing payments. FARA has received more attention in recent years because of the prosecution of high-profile figures such as former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort and disgraced former senator Bob Menendez (D., N.J.).
Wyden chairs the Senate Finance Committee, a Democratic-led panel currently investigating Kushner’s investment fund Affinity Partners and its foreign backing. The letter outlines the $2 billion investment the Saudi government’s Public Investment Fund poured into Affinity Partners, generating an estimated $87 million of management fees since June 2021. The estimated income is based on Affinity Partners’s fee structure, as disclosed to the Securities and Exchange Commission. Qatar and the United Arab Emirates combined with a Taiwanese billionaire have invested another $1 billion into Affinity Partners.
Wyden and Raskin believe the Saudi investment is a ploy to curry favor with Kushner with the goal of influencing Trump’s policy decisions if he becomes president again. Kushner remains an influential figure in Trump world and publicly comments on Israel’s multi-front war against Iranian terror proxies Hamas and Hezbollah. As an adviser to Trump, Kushner spearheaded talks that produced the Abraham Accords, the Trump administration’s landmark Middle Eastern peace agreement.
Raskin is Ranking Member of the House Oversight Committee and strongly opposed the Republican-led investigation into President Joe Biden’s troubled son Hunter. The Oversight, Judiciary, and Ways and Means Committees spearheaded an impeachment inquiry into Joe Biden that probed his son’s foreign business dealings and IRS whistleblower allegations of misconduct during the Justice Department’s Hunter Biden probe.
The impeachment inquiry uncovered $27 million of payments from foreign sources to Hunter Biden and his business partners, and it detailed the contacts Joe Biden had with his son’s business associates. Hunter Biden’s lucrative business dealings last decade primarily took place with individuals and entities based in Ukraine, China, and Romania. The GOP investigation largely confirmed the IRS whistleblower allegations that Justice Department officials on the Hunter Biden case slow-walked and obstructed investigative steps.
If Democrats reclaim the lower chamber, Raskin is prepared to launch investigations into members of the Trump family, including Kushner, Axios reported. He is seeking to emulate the January 6th Committee’s high-profile investigation into the Capitol riot.
To handle the Justice Department’s most politically perilous investigations, Garland has appointed multiple special counsels to create separation between him and the outcomes.
Garland appointed Delaware U.S. Attorney David Weiss special counsel for the Justice Department’s Hunter Biden probe after a sweetheart plea agreement between Biden and Weiss’s office fell apart last summer. Weiss’s team subsequently prosecuted Hunter Biden on federal gun and tax charges in Delaware and California respectively.