In a Thursday letter to House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.), Ranking Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) called for a subpoena of documents related to the foreign business dealings of former President Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner.
The Oversight Democrats initially launched a probe into Kushner’s investment firm, A Fin Management LLC (Affinity Partners), in June 2022, over the firm receiving billions of dollars from wealth funds controlled by Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates (U.A.E.).
Two months after he left his position as an advisor to then-President Trump on U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East, Kushner raised $2 billion from the Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF), chaired by the Crown Prince of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed bin Salman.
Raskin’s letter comes after Oversight Chairman Comer’s Aug. 11 appearance on CNN, in which he said that Kushner “crossed the line of ethics” by taking the $2 billion from the Saudi government.
Additionally, Kushner’s Affinity Partners reportedly received $200 million from both the U.A.E. and Qatar.
In February, Comer said on ABC News that he does not “disagree with the Democrats and their criticism of the previous administration.”
“The Democrats complained about Kushner’s foreign dealings. Republicans are certainly complaining about the entire Biden family’s foreign business dealings,” Comer said, hoping for a bipartisan investigation into Kushner.
“I am encouraged by your recent acknowledgement that ‘what Kushner did crossed the line of ethics’ and your repeated assertions that our Committee is ‘investigating foreign nationals’ attempts to target and coerce high-ranking U.S. officials’ family members by providing money or other benefits in exchange for certain actions,'” Raskin wrote in his letter to Comer.
“In light of these concerns, I urge you to pursue a serious and objective investigation by issuing a subpoena to Affinity and requiring the firm to comply with my February 15, 2023, request for documents regarding its receipt of billions of dollars from Gulf monarchies shortly after Mr. Kushner left a senior White House position he used to reshape U.S. foreign policy toward Saudi Arabia and the Middle East in Saudi Arabia’s favor—a request you have thus far allowed Mr. Kushner to ignore and defy,” Raskin wrote.
Kushner helped negotiate the 2020 Abraham Accords, a declaration of the normalization of relations between Israel, the U.A.E., and Bahrain.
Raskin speculates in his letter that there is a “significant possibility” that there was a large quid pro quo shaping Kushner’s official actions while serving in the Trump White House, and that “he repeatedly and primarily used his role as a senior government official to benefit his own personal financial interests.”
Oversight Chairman Comer has been investigating Hunter Biden and the Biden family for an alleged bribery scheme involving China, Ukraine, and other foreign governments, including uncovering bank records that show over $20 million in payments from foreign sources to the Bidens and their associates while Joe Biden was serving as vice president to Barack Obama.
