It Is Time For Jared Kushner To Go
FRED WERTHEIMER’S WEEKLY NOTE | MARCH 1, 2018
“With extensive business holdings that he refused to divest, and with his obvious nepotism problems, Jared Kushner never should have been given a senior White House position in the first place.”
It is time for White House advisor Jared Kushner to go.
On April 26, 2017, Democracy 21 wrote to Kushner raising concerns about potential conflicts of interest that he faced as a result of his high-level position in the White House and his refusal to fully divest from his business interests. We said to Kushner that the best way to resolve these issues would be to make “a full divestiture of your business assets into a blind trust that complied with the requirements of the Ethics in Government Act.”
Then, on May 8, we wrote to the Office of Government Ethics (OGE), urging them to take appropriate action with regard to Kushner’s conflicts of interest in one of his major responsibilities.
Kushner, however, refused to fully divest his business holdings and insisted on continuing to own numerous real estate business interests in a portfolio that was valued at as much as $740 million.
Yesterday, The New York Times revealed a classic conflict-of-interest problem involving Kushner. It also demonstrated the nepotism dangers of having a family member working in the White House with high-level responsibilities.
According to The Times, private equity billionaire Joshua Harris met with Kushner in the White House on multiple occasions. Harris was advising the Administration on infrastructure issues and reportedly a White House job for Harris was discussed, but in the end did not happen. The Times reported that Harris’s equity firm later “lent $184 million to Mr. Kushner’s family real estate firm, Kushner Companies,” triple the size of their normal real estate loan.
At a minimum, these activities constituted an appearance of conflict of interest and should be investigated by the OGE.
The Times article followed another story about foreign countries discussing ways to manipulate Kushner “by taking advantage of his complex business arrangements, financial difficulties and lack of foreign policy experience.” This week, we also learned that Kushner lost his top-secret security clearance.
With extensive business holdings that he refused to divest, and with his obvious nepotism problems, Jared Kushner never should have been given a senior White House position in the first place.
The record now makes clear that he should promptly leave his White House job.
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Fred Wertheimer is the Founder and President of Democracy 21, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that works to strengthen our democracy and ensure the integrity and fairness of government decisions and elections.
