Qatar Has Evidence Against Kushner, Considering Handing Over To Mueller
Kushner coordinated with Persian Gulf countries to punish Qatar after Qatar refused to loan Kushner’s business money.
Jared Kushner may be in more trouble than anyone thought.
According to two new reports Friday, there seems to be a massive scandal unraveling in the Trump administration – and Jared Kushner is right in the middle of it all.
It was reported by NBC News that Special Counsel Robert Mueller is probing whether Kushner’s foreign business ties have influenced Trump administration policy.
And in the same report, it was revealed that just weeks after Qatar declined to invest in Kushner’s 666 5th Avenue building in New York City, the Trump administratio backed a blockade of the Persian Gulf nation by its neighbors led by Saudi Arabia.
But it gets more shady than that. According to the NBC report, the Qataris have evidence that Kushner coordinated that blockade and they are considering handing it over to Special Counsel Mueller.
Here is how NBC reports it:
Qatari government officials visiting the U.S. in late January and early February considered turning over to Mueller what they believe is evidence of efforts by their country’s Persian Gulf neighbors in coordination with Kushner to hurt their country, four people familiar with the matter said. The Qatari officials decided against cooperating with Mueller for now out of fear it would further strain the country’s relations with the White House, these people said.”
Kushner’s family real estate business, Kushner Companies, approached Qatar multiple times, including last spring, about investing in the company’s troubled flagship property at 666 Fifth Avenue in New York, but the government-run sovereign wealth fund declined, according to two people familiar with the discussion. Another discussion of interest to Mueller’s team is a meeting Kushner held at Trump Tower during the transition in December 2016 with a former prime minister of Qatar, Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber Al Thani, or HBJ, according to people familiar with the meeting.
HBJ had been in talks with Kushner Companies about investing in its Fifth Avenue property, which is facing roughly $1.4 billion in debt that is due in 2019, these people said. Those talks with the company continued after Kushner entered the White House and stepped away from the business, but last spring HBJ decided against investing, these people said.
In the weeks after Kushner Companies’ talks with the Qatari government and HBJ collapsed, the White House strongly backed an economically punishing blockade against Qatar, led by Saudi Arabia and the UAE, citing the country’s support for terrorism as the impetus. Kushner, who is both President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and a key adviser, has played a major role in Trump’s Middle East policy and has developed close relationships with the crown princes of Saudi Arabia and the UAE.
Read the full NBC News report here.
[image via CNN screenshot]
