On January 9th 2017, president elect Donald J. Trump formally announced the foregone conclusion that his son-in-law Jared Kushner would join Executive Branch in the new Administration as a Senior Advisor to the President www.washingtonpost.com/.... On January 18th, two days before Trump’s Inauguration, an aide submitted Kushner’s haphazardly compiled request for a security clearance (SF-86). That initial application failed to list any contacts with foreign governments and provided incomplete answers in a number of other sections. Kushner’s office filed a supplement the very next day, listing numerous foreign contacts and promising to compile and submit a complete list.
Four months later, in May 2017, Kushner’s office provided extensive revisions and amendments to his revised application, listing more than a hundred foreign contacts from more than twenty countries. www.newyorker.com/...including an improbably overlooked meeting with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak. Curiously, Kushner’s revised May 2017 SF-86 application still failed to disclose the June 9, 2016 Trump Tower meeting with Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya en.wikipedia.org/...revealed in Donald Trump Jr.’s emails, in which the Russian envoy promised dirt on Hillary Clinton in exchange for the elimination of financial sanctions imposed in December 2012 under the Magnitsky Act en.wikipedia.org/....
As a senior advisor to the 45th President, Jared Kushner has been handed a stunningly expansive portfolio — one for which he has no formal training, education, expertise or experience — which includes: brokering Peace in the Middle East, Diplomacy with Mexico, Resolving the Opioid Crisis, Diplomacy with China, Reforming Veterans Affairs, and Reforming the Criminal Justice System thinkprogress.org/… and if all that wasn’t enough, Kushner also serves as the head of the Office of American Innovation —
All those sensitive activities are directed by a guy who for the last 13 months has been working under a provisional security clearance, because the very busy Jared Kushner as been unable to clear up all the error and omission issues in his background check necessary get a full Top Secret and Sensitive Compartmented Information, or SCI, security clearance --the clearance needed for the highest level of access.
We should all ask why? For starters, because he keeps on lying (or making misstatements) to the investigators, forgetting to mention contacts with foreigners and failing to disclose all of his financial liabilities and entanglements. Jared Kushner is an international jet setting deal making wonderkind — so, sorting out his extensive web of contacts associates and creditors can reasonably be expected to take time. But for a guy who is supposed to be capable of leading a vast array of Executive Branch initiatives, you would think he could remember who he owes money and what foreigners he has met with and list them on his SF-86. Should we seriously trust sensitive international diplomacy to a guy who can’t manage fill out a government employment form?
Despite his inability to get a security clearance, Jared Kushner was provided access to the full Presidential Daily Brief (PDB en.wikipedia.org/...—the one that Donald Trump declines to get because it is so complicated that it bores him!?) which most certainly contains highly sensitive and economically and politically useful information. Keep in mind that Kushner has not removed himself from his private business interests, his assets are not in a blind trust — he still has highly leveraged real estate in urgent need of infusions of cash and has been working desperately to find foreign investors to prop up and bail out his business. Kushner has every opportunity to use the sensitive insider information in the presidential daily brief for his own personal profit.
Even more frightening, he also has the ability to shape administration policy in ways that benefit his friends and lenders and punish those who have failed to bail him out It is also worth pointing out that after all the brouhaha over Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server, and the risks that posed to sensitive information, Kushner has unaccountably used personal email for some of his Executive Branch government business activities www.politico.com/...
We know from Rod Rosenstein's visit to the White House two weeks ago, (before the latest round of indictments, thehill.com/..).that some of the problems with Kushner’s security clearance are tangled up in the Mueller investigation. However, that does not appear to be the end of Jared’s troubles. Some of the background check issues seem to be connected to financial problems in the Kushner family real estate business, which is engaged in complex financial transactions involving foreign financiers and bankers and heavily leveraged assets www.politico.com/…
Ivanka Trump has her own set of issues. Among her jetsetter friends is Dasha Zhukova
, daughter of a Russian oligarch Alexander Zhukov en.wikipedia.org/... www.theguardian.com/...and wife of Roman Abramovich, a Russian billionaire and close Putin confidant. Another of Ivanka’s close friends is the mysterious femme fatale Wendi Deng, ex-wife of Rupert Murdoch and alleged girlfriend of former British Prime Minister Tony Blair and then perhaps Vladimir Putin’s lover, but now enjoying public time with the young Hungarian model Bertold Zahoran. Wendi Deng may or may not be a Chinese Spy, or a Russian spy or maybe even a CIA agent. If she isn’t a spy it is the greatest wasted recruiting opportunity in history — cause she has unsurpassed talents for attracting and handling powerful men — www.telegraph.co.uk/… www.vanityfair.com/…
Folks, close friends like Dasha Zhukova and Wendi Deng are going to throw up some red flags during a security clearance investigation, no matter whose daughter you are.
The investigators researching Jared and Ivanka’s financials and foreign contacts in the effort to assess their security risk clearly have their hands full. Looking back to the 2016 campaign and the months leading up to the election we may find some of the issues that concern those investigators the most.
The sequence of events is this - On June 7, 2016 Hillary Clinton clinched the Democratic nomination. A little over a month later on July 19, 2016 at the party convention in Cleveland www.cnn.com/... , Donald J Trump was formally named the Republican Party nominee for president Less than a month later, in August of 2016 at the height of Donald J. Trump’s mysteriously successful and wildly improbable campaign for the US Presidency, two of his most loyal supporters and advocates — his daughter Ivanka and son-in-law Jared Kushner took time off from the campaign stretch run, to go on a “vacation” in Croatia.
August is the high season in Dubrovnik, an ancient city in southern Croatia fronting the Adriatic Sea. Summer brings cruise ships, yachts and a smattering of the world’s rich and famous to Dubrovnik. In August of 2016 Jared and Ivanka were the guests of movie producer David Geffen — whose 200 million dollar mega-yacht “The Rising Sun” was anchored in front of the island of Daksa near Dubrovnik. Geffen’s yacht provided luxurious seaside guest accommodations and a level of privacy and security not easily achieved in a rented villa or luxury hotel. But Paparazzi are everywhere, so we have a bunch of telephoto images of Ivanka and Jared enjoying their time away from the campaign— sunbathing on the deck, sightseeing in town, jet skiing —relaxed innocent looking regular rich folk vacation stuff.
Questions remain about any contacts or meetings Jared and or Ivanka might have had with foreign nationals during that August 2016 vacation in Croatia, and whether those contacts or meetings were disclosed on Jared’s SF-86 — security clearance form (as amended).
Federal employees (including unpaid executive branch employees like Mr. Kushner) who need a security clearance are required to complete a form SF-86. Finances and foreign travel are among the security concerns because people in financial difficulty might be tempted to place their personal finances ahead of their country. The applicant must disclose their contact information, including during any times they have travelled abroad (who did you meet with) and also update the investigator (if one has been assigned) with their planned travel details and provide a verifier for that travel, as they must do on the SF86. .clearancejobs.com/…
- Does the targeted individual have the potential to provide information of interest to a foreign power, say the Russian Federation? If (If you have a security clearance, you have access to sensitive information of interest to the Russian Federation, especially what is or isn’t in the president’s daily brief).
- Does the individual have a need? Every relationship has a quid pro quo, what is it the individual needs?
- Induce the individual to provide, initially, any information.
- Will the individual accept favors, lavish meals and expensive gifts? And most importantly, will the individual sign a receipt?
The list of possible contacts between Jared and Ivanka during their August 2016 vacation to Dubrovnik seems relevant, particularly in light of later revelations about Russian efforts to affect the November 2016 elections and certain policy moves or changes in long established foreign policy that the Trump Administration has undertaken or declined to undertake.
FIve days before Jared and Ivanka arrived in Dubrovnik, the $300 million dollar super yacht “Katara” owned by the billionaire former Qatari prime minister Hamad bin Jassim Al Thani docked there. The 124 m ”Katara” with a crew of 60 has 14 luxury cabins. Her owner, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, who was the founder of the Arabian news network Al Jazeera, is worth a reported $2.5 billion. known as HBJ, he now runs the investment firm Al Mirqab Capital.
Robert Mueller is currently investigating contacts between Kushner and the former Qatari prime minister HBJ in relation to desperate efforts by the Kushners to refinance their remaining share of the debt ridden 1.8 billion dollar office building at 666 Fifth Ave, half owned by his family trust. theintercept.com/...
The Qatari businessman pledged to provide Charles Kushner, then heading Kushner Companies in Jared’s place, with $500 million in capital provided Kushner was able to raise the rest of the multibillion-dollar refinancing elsewhere.
Charles Kushner reportedly turned to China’s Anbang Insurance Group for an additional $400 million, but the holding company pulled out of the deal in March 2017 following conflict of interest claims. (note that the head of Anbang Insurance Co. Wu Xiaohui was convicted last week for corruption and his company was nationalizd. Wu Xiaohui was also prosecuted for economic crimes. Wu was arrested in June as troubles mounted for one of China’s most aggressive buyers of overseas assets. Crooked to the core Anbang was not going bail Kushner out.reuters.com/...)
Left in the lurch, we now know that Jared Kushner just weeks later devised a plan with Saudi Arabia to form a coalition with the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, and Bahrain to jump Qatar, an unexpected move given the Qatari emir had joined Trump in Riyadh just weeks before the blockade started, where no issues were raised with Qatar about any of its policies or relationships. theintercept.com/...
The dispute in the Gulf erupted a few months later, supposedly following comments by HJB that the Gulf States policy towards Iran was “unwise.” On June 5, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain, Libya and Yemen cut diplomatic ties with Qatar, amid allegations that the Qatar was supporting terrorism, a charge that Qatar has fiercely denied. Ports and airspace were blockaded cutting off Qatari vessels and the situation remains tense to this day. What exactly are we doing on the diplomatic front to ease the Gulf Crisis? We’ll despite Secretary of State Tillerson’s complaints, we have multiple Executive Branch individuals with this responsibility, including Jared Kushner.
Over the last four years Qatar has been helping Israel avoid another Gaza war by funneling more than $800 million in relief aid to impoverished Palestinians in the Gaza Strip — relief work that has continued with the blessing of the Trump administration. In recent days there are informed reports that "Gaza is on the verge of collapsing," which seems certain without continued Qatari relief aid, as Ambassador Mohammed Al-Emadi told Reuters in an interview in Jerusalem.
Qatar has been accused of aiding Hamas in the process, but -
Qatar denies all the accusations, and pushed back with outreach to the United States—including several leaders of its pro-Israel Jewish community.
"If we are helping Hamas, do you think the Israelis (would) allow us to go inside and come out?" Al-Emadi asked. "It's impossible. They know we are not helping Hamas." www.ynetnews.com/...
Now HBJ’s Aljazeera is being accused of spying against American Jews and Israel www.egypttoday.com/… So much for Kuchners making peace in the mideast. It appears more like he is stirring the pot and waiting for it to explode, maybe on the the Mueller indicts White House staffers. Does he have an ulterior personal motive?
Throughout 2015 and 2016, Jared Kushner and his father, Charles, negotiated with Qatari Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim al-Thani in an effort to refinance their troubled 666 Fifth Avenue office building. If they fail to secure new financing, the Kushner’s are going to be completely wiped out — financially ruined. theintercept.com/… Curiously, when that bailout loan deal with HJB fell through in April, it appears that Jared may have used his influence in the Trump White House to organize geopolitical and economic payback against Qatar or at least sit by and allow that to happen.
So, did some of the initial Kushner bailout loan negotiations with HBJ happen in August 2016 while Jared and Ivanka were on vacation in Croatia where the billionaires yacht just happened to be? If so, did Jared disclose the nature of those contacts on his SF86 and what did he promise HBJ in exchange for the loan. Someday soon Robert Mueller may let us know.
The Jared Kushner Ivanka Trump Wendi Deng Dubrovnik vacation coincided with the presence of another superyacht, one owned by the Russian oligarch Dmitry Rybolovlev en.wikipedia.org/... whose travels during the Trump campaign showed some curious overlap with Donald Trump’s and his supporter Robert .mypalmbeachpost.com/... .
Rybolovlev’s personal jet and his yacht, the 220-foot “Anna,” were also in Dubrovnik during the summer of 2016, including on the days of August 10-14 — overlapping the time Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner were vacationing there, a fact brought to light her at KOS nearly a year ago by Texas Lefty on March 17, 2017. www.dailykos.com/… Roman Abramovich is a regular visitor to Dubrovnik - his yacht ‘Eclipse’ was there on the 31st of August in 2016 anchored off the uninhabited island of Daksa.
You may recall that Donald Trump and Mr. Rybolovlev were party to a bizarre real estate deal now subject to new scrutiny www.cnn.com/.... In 2008 when real estate prices across the country were in a steep decline, Rybolovlev bought an elaborate estate in Palm Beach from Donald Trump for $95 million —or more than double (roughly $55 million more) what Trump paid for it four years earlier. This real estate deal is bizarre for any number of reasons — first off, Trump was flat broke in 2004 when he bought the property — where in the world did he get $40 million to buy a huge white elephant of a house — one that he never intended to live in or use? He didn’t have the money to save his casinos — so where did that 40 million come from? I suspect that his Russian friends engaged him as a straw buyer in that transaction— to buy the property with their dirty money — they likely paid Trump a handsome laundering fee to buy hold and then resell the property — allowing still more dirty Russian money to be laundered. Trump seems to have been a useful tool in that 2004-2008 money laundering scheme, because he appeared to be a wildly rich guy who plausibly might buy a folly like that — its what we’re supposed to think crazy rich guys like Trump do with their money.
New evidence for financial improprieties have come to light regarding Kushner’s overlapping personal and Executive Branch activities. www.dailykos.com/… An investigation into the shift in US foreign policy toward Qatar — in the wake of Kushner’s failed loan arrangement with HJB in April 2017 — now that is something worthy of a Congressional investigation — where is he House Foreign Affairs Committee. They might start by interviewing journalists at the Intercept — Ryan Grim, Clayton Swisher who have been bold enough to suggest that Kushner has used his ability to shape US foreign policy in the Middle East to punish Qatar when HBJ wouldn’t’ t lend him money he desperately needs to prop up his family business empire.
Now that Kushner’s security clearance has been downgraded to just Secret” are you feeling any safer?