Donald Trump Taps Charles Kushner, Dad of Jared, As The Incoming Ambassador To France
President-elect Donald Trump tapped his son-in-law Jared Kushnerâs dad, Charles Kushner, as the incoming ambassador to France on Saturdayâa key role in managing the fraught relationship between Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron.
Kushner, an infamous figure in New Jersey, is a wealthy real estate executive who was convicted and imprisoned in 2005 after pleading guilty to 16 federal counts of filing false tax returns, one count of making false statements to the Federal Election Commission, and one count of retaliating against a cooperating witness and was later pardoned by Trump in the final days of his first term.
âHe is a tremendous business leader, philanthropist, & dealmaker, who will be a strong advocate representing our Country & its interests,â Trump wrote on Truth Social, his social media site. âTogether, we will strengthen Americaâs partnership with France, our oldest Ally, & one of our greatest!â
Kushner, 70, had a firm hold in real estate by the early 2000s before running into legal troubles and pleading guilty in 2004. As a part of his plea at the time, he admitted to targeting his brother-in-law, William Schulder, a former employee turned witness for federal prosecutors in their case against the elder Kushner. The plot included Kushner hiring a sex worker to lure Schulder into a motel room, have sex with him, and film it on a hidden camera. That tape would later be sent to Schulderâs wife, Kushnerâs sister, as an intimidation stunt.
Alas, Kushnerâs scheme didnât end up working and he was sentenced to two years in prison, but was released earlier in 2006.
He found vindication, though, with Trumpâs pardon over a decade later.
Trump granted Kushner clemency âas part of a wave of 26 pardons he issued with roughly a month left in his first term, along with other close associates including Paul Manafort, his 2016 campaign chairman, and Roger J. Stone Jr., a longtime ally and informal adviser,â the New York Times reports in their Saturday write-up of Trumpâs pick. Both Jared and Charles Kushner, according to reporting from the Times, played a key role in who Trump considered clemency for.
Prosecuting Kushnerâs initial case was no other than Chris Christie, the former New Jersey governor who was then a US attorney. Christieâwho has become a vocal critic of Trumpârecalled Kushnerâs misconduct as âone of the most loathsome, disgusting crimes that I prosecuted…and I was the U.S. attorney in New Jerseyâ during a 2019 interview with PBS.
UNITED STATES – AUGUST 18: US Attorney Christopher J. Christie speaks to the media, after Charles Kushner, the No. 1 donor to New Jersey Governor James McGreevey’s 2001 campaign, plead guilty at U.S. District court in Newark, New Jersey, August 18, 2004. Kushner pleaded guilty to lying about political donations, cheating on taxes and videotaping a government witness having sex with a call girl. (Photo by Rick Maiman/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
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Kushner has long defended his son, and the two are reportedly close as Jared, for years, used a wallet that his dad made him while incarcerated. (Vanity Fairâs Bess Levin detailed some of the pairâs dependence here.)
During Kushnerâs time in The White House, he influenced policy abroad and at homeâfrom relations with China and the Middle East to the Trump administrationâs COVID response. A tenure that was also mired in controversy.
Charles, in his first interview after his son entered the White House, was asked about one of these controversies, involving an investigation into some handlings by the Kushner family business. He told The Washington Post that he was ânot at all concernedâ about the investigation and that those probing could âknock themselves out for the next 10 years reading those papers as far as Iâm concerned.â
He also took the time to laude his son and how heâs handled the task of growing up with generational wealth.
âWe didnât raise our children as typical children,â he said. âThey were taught if you have wealth, it is not something to be spoiled about, it is a lot of responsibility, which requires you to do more, better than if you didnât have the money. So my children, they are more mature than their years and they were raised that way.â
Jared Kushnerâs dealings since Trump left office have also been called into question, such as the large sum of money, $2 billion, that he received from the Saudi Public Investment Fund for his business ventures.
Following the 2020 election, Kusher and wife Ivanka Trump relocated to Miami, took a step back from roles in government, and are reportedly not poised to join the president-electâs future cabinet. Yet, itâs unclear how much influence the couple may still have, as the younger Kushnerâs continued ties to the Middle East could come into play, according to reporting from CNN last month.
In what has ended up being a huge weekend for fathers-in-law, the president-elect announced on Sunday that Massad Boulosâthe dad of Tiffany Trumpâs husband, Michael Boulosâwould serve as his Middle East and Arab world adviser.
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