Democrats on Capitol Hill have accused President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner of “influence peddling” through his private equity firm.
However, Democrats have provided no evidence to support the claims other than a hunch.
Kushner’s foreign-backed investment firm has made no profits, despite reaping millions in management fees, the New York Times reported.
The new information was shared by the Democrat-run Senate Finance Committee.
The committee has been “investigating” Kushner’s foreign financial ventures since he left the Trump White House.
Kushner and his wife Ivanka Trump worked as top advisers to the 45th president.
Senate Finance Chairman Ron Wyden (D-OR) said Kushner’s firm Affinity Partners had “not distributed a penny of earnings back to clients.”
Wyden claims this raises concerns about influence peddling.
During his time in Washington, Kushner cultivated close ties with Saudia Arabia.
Kushner worked closely with the Saudi crown prince as he handled foreign policy matters in the Middle East such as the historic Abraham Accords.
After leaving the Trump administration, Kushner started a private equity firm that has been largely backed by foreign investors.
Affinity Partners notably received $2 billion from Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund.
However, the Saudi fund is one of the largest investors in the world.
Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund invests in several major American firms including Elon Musk’s X, Google, and Meta.
In a letter to the firm, Wyden wrote:
“Affinity’s investors may not be motivated by commercial considerations but rather the opportunity to funnel foreign government money to members of President Trump’s family, namely Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump.”
According to Wyden, Affinity Partners has received over $112 million in fees since 2021 from investors but has so far returned nothing in profits.
The firm, which formed in 2021, dismissed the charge as a political attack, adding it is not unusual for private equity firms to take several years to make profit.
In a statement, Chad Mizelle, Affinity Partners’ chief legal officer, said:
“Partisan politics aside, Affinity Partners is an S.E.C.-registered investment firm that has always acted appropriately and any suggestion to the contrary is false.
“We are fortunate to have the support of some of the world’s most sophisticated investors and work hard on their behalf every day.”
Kushner has said he has no plans to work for his father-in-law again.
Ivanka has also shown little interest in getting back into politics.
If Trump wins the presidential election, the controversy over his son-in-law’s business could become an unwanted distraction.
Democrats are certain to use whatever scandals they can, real or imagined, to undermine Trump’s authority.
“A potential future Trump administration will have financial motives to make foreign policy decisions that may be counter to the national interest in order to ensure Kushner and Ivanka Trump continue to collect millions of dollars in fees from foreign governments through Affinity,” Wyden wrote.
