Jim Lo Scalzo/Getty, Zach Gibson/Getty
- Shortly after leaving the White House, Jared Kushner got $2 billion in funding from the Saudi government for his private-equity fund.
- Mohammed bin Salman, the Saudi crown prince who developed close ties to Kushner, pushed the deal through, the New York Times reported.
- Now, Democrats on the House Oversight Committee are asking the GOP to investigate with the same zeal they've applied to Hunter Biden.
With the 2024 campaign looming, Democratic Congressman Jamie Raskin of Maryland is punching back at GOP attempts to investigate the financial dealings of Hunter Biden, President Joe Biden's son.
Raskin is asking the House Oversight Committee to take a hard look at Jared Kushner, former President Donald Trump's son-in-law, and Affinity Partners, the $3 billion private equity fund that Kushner founded shortly after leaving the White House and funded largely with money from foreign governments.
On Thursday morning, Raskin, the ranking Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, sent Rep. James Comer, the committee's GOP chairman, a letter asking that Comer issue a subpoena to Affinity for records that committee Democrats have been seeking for more than a year.
The letter puts special focus on a $2 billion investment from Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund. The Fund is chaired by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (often shortened to MBS) who had extensive contact with Kushner while he was serving under Trump as a senior advisor.
According to reporting by the Intercept, MBS once boasted that Kushner was "in his pocket."
While serving in government, Kushner delivered big for Saudi Arabia. He pushed for Trump to make the kingdom his first overseas trip. The New York Times reported that Kushner personally intervened to get MBS a better price from Lockheed Martin on a $110 billion arms deal.
He continued to talk to MBS by voice and text message, without looping in officials from the National Security Council, even after Saudi government officials brutally dismembered Jamal Khashoggi, a Saudi dissident journalist and US resident, the New York Times also reported.
Some Saudi officials were reportedly reluctant to entrust Kushner with billions of dollars in public money, the Times reported in 2022. They cited his inexperience and Affinity's high management fees — 1.25 percent of the principal each year, the outlet reported.
But MBS, who chairs the fund, intervened to push the deal through, according to the Times' repo
Affinity Partners now has an office in Miami. Its staffers number in the dozens; they include a two-star general who helped Kushner broker the Abraham Accords, and a number of former Trump White House staffers. Affinity did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In a recent CNN interview, Comer himself said that Kushner's dealings "crossed the line of ethics."
But on Thursday morning, Austin Hacker, a spokesperson for Rep. Comer, did not sound enthusiastic about Raskin's request. In an email, Hacker called Raskin's letter "an attempt to distract" from the GOP-led committee's ongoing inquiry into Hunter Biden.
You can read the full letter from Rep. Raskin below.