Justice Department Should Investigate Jared Kushner, Former Federal Prosecutor Says
Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump’s adviser and son-in-law, was accused earlier this week of siphoning almost half the funds raised in the 2020 presidential race to a private company. Members of the Trump and Pence family allegedly sat on the board of the organization, which was incorporated as American Made Media Consultants Corporation and American Made Media Consultants LLC.
According to former federal prosecutor Glenn Kirschner, the incoming Biden administration should investigate the matter. Per Raw Story, in an interview with MSNBC on Saturday, Kirschner argued that the best way to get to the bottom of the alleged scandal would be to have the Department of Justice probe Kushner.
Kirschner noted that it remains unclear whether Kushner and his allies violated any laws, saying that it is possible the company was set up so that members of the Trump family and other individuals in the president’s orbit could “grift some campaign contributions for themselves.”
“The only way to answer that question is really to have a full, fair, aggressive, apolitical grand jury investigation opened by the incoming Department of Justice in January.”
Kirschner explained that campaign finance is “heavily regulated” and argued that the Department of Justice could issue subpoenas because there should be a paper trail of all transactions and similar activity.
“Subpoena the records, subpoena the documents. These kind of cases are paper intensive, so there will be records, there will be documents,” the former federal prosecutor said.
Kirschner stressed that a thorough investigation is necessary and the best way to determine whether Kushner and others engaged in any kind of criminal activity when they diverted Trump campaign cash to their organization.
“Of course, they’ll interview witnesses and at the end of the process you can declare yes, what they were doing was criminal or no, what they were doing was not criminal, even if it looked pretty shady,” he said.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eGdVr__kdoU&feature=emb_title
According to The New York Times, Kushner and his wife, Ivanka Trump, reported an income of at least $36 million in 2019. The couple’s investments were worth as much as $783 million, financial disclosures showed. Despite working at the White House, Kushner has kept a stake in his family’s real estate firm, selling and buying properties in New York, New Jersey, Ohio and Virginia.
Kushner has been an influential voice in the Trump administration, handling issues such as foreign policy and coronavirus. Critics, such as The Washington Post‘s Aaron Blake, have accused Trump of nepotism for hiring his daughter and son-in-law as advisers.
