Jared Kushner Must Leave White House if He Put Business Interests in Qatar Ahead of Troop Safety, Democrat Says
Jared Kushner must leave his job as a senior White House adviser if reports he intentionally supported a blockade of Qatar after the country's government refused to finance a troubled property of his family-run real estate firm Kushner Cos. are true, a leading Democratic senator has said.
Related: Jared Kushner should be fired after his week from hell, Democrats say
“If it’s true, it’s damning,” Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut said on ABC News’ This Week show on Sunday. “If it’s true, he’s got to go.”
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Murphy, who sits on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, added that the Trump administration’s decision to back the Qatar blockade organized by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates could have put U.S. troops’ lives in danger.
“If the reason that this administration put U.S. troops at risk in Qatar was to protect the Kushners’ financial interests, then that’s all the evidence you need to make some big changes in the White House,” Murphy said.
In April 2017, Kushner Cos. directly solicited investment from Qatari Finance Minister Ali Sherif al-Emadi for its deeply indebted 666 Fifth Avenue luxury tower in Manhattan, The Intercept alleged in a report published Friday. No deal came out of the talks headed by Kushner’s father, Charles Kushner, who has run the company since Trump’s son-in-law began serving in the White House.
Weeks later, Jared Kushner and the Trump administration stood behind the blockade that shifted alliances in the region, with Qatar—which holds the largest U.S. military base in the Middle East—moving closer to Iran and Turkey.
Kushner Cos. spokeswoman Chris Taylor, in an email to Newsweek on Friday, denied any brokering attempts took place.
“To be clear, we did not meet with anyone from the Qatari government to solicit sovereign funds for any of our projects,” Taylor said. “To suggest otherwise is inaccurate and false.”
Jared Kushner has been shrouded in controversy over the past week, with concerns around his government work and business dealings and conflicts of interest between them exacerbated by the downgrade of his temporary security clearance.