Jared Kushner Called to Face the Music

Democratic Representatives Jamie Raskin of Maryland and Robert Garcia of California are calling on Republicans to hold a hearing for Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner over a $2 billion investment his private equity firm received after he left the White House.

Democrats have often discussed the money Kushner’s firm, Affinity Partners, received from a fund led by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. The investment was received six months after Kushner left his role as a White House adviser to Trump in January 2021. This comes as Republicans try to impeach President Joe Biden over allegations the president benefited from his son, Hunter Biden’s, foreign dealings while in office.

Meanwhile, Democrats on the House Oversight Committee already previously released a report alleging Trump’s businesses received millions in foreign payments while he was in office. Eric Trump, executive vice president of The Trump Organization, dismissed the report’s finding as a “joke” and said that all the company’s profits from its business with foreign governments were voluntarily donated to the United States Treasury.

On Tuesday, Raksin, a ranking member of the Committee on Oversight and Accountability, and Garcia, a ranking member of the Subcommittee on National Security, the Border, and Foreign Affairs, sent a letter asking leading Republicans on the House Oversight Committee to hold a hearing over Kushner’s “apparent influence peddling and quid pro quos for actions he undertook to reshape U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East.”

“We write to urge you to convene a hearing regarding Jared Kushner’s apparent influence peddling and quid pro quo deals involving investments in exchange for official actions and to examine the resulting threats to our national security. Our request comes in light of allegations that Jared Kushner is pursuing new foreign business deals, just as Donald Trump becomes the presumptive Republican nominee for the presidency,” the two Democrats wrote in the letter to Oversight Committee Chair Republican James Comer of Kentucky and Republican Representative Glenn Grothman of Wisconsin, who chairs a subcommittee of the panel.

The letter continues to note Comer has previously indicated that Republicans would also have questions for Trump’s family members, including Kushner as Comer “conceded that Mr. Kushner’s conduct ‘crossed the line of ethics’ and promised that the Oversight Committee would investigate Mr. Kushner.”

“This Committee cannot claim to be ‘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 while continuing to ignore these matters,” Raskin and Garcia added.

Newsweek has reached out to Raskin, Garcia and Comer’s office via email for comment.

Tuesday’s letter comes after Raskin had made a motion to subpoena Kushner for information about the investment in his private equity firm.

However, the motion was tabled by Ohio Republican Representative Jim Jordan and Comer during a meeting regarding Hunter Biden.

Jordan said that Kushner had a positive impact on diplomacy, including being one of the “key officials” involved in the Abraham Accords Act—a diplomatic agreement between Israel and the Arab countries that was brokered by Trump in September 2020.

“But of course the Democrats don’t want to admit that,” Jordan added.

In response, Raskin then said he has a motion, and that he would like the committee to move to subpoena Kushner to “compel testimony related to the $2 billion collected from Saudi Arabia after his service within the White House.”

Raskin’s motion has since been tabled.