Who is Jared Kushner, what’s his net worth and when did he marry Ivanka Trump?
HE is a wealthy real estate developer who landed a top job at the White House — but he is not Donald Trump.
Jared Kushner, credited with helping his father-in-law get elected as US president, has been criticised for failing to report a meeting with a Kremlin-connected lawyer to the FBI. Here’s what we know about him.
Who is Jared Kushner? What’s his background?
Born in 1981, 38-year-old Jared Kushner is the son of real estate developer Charles Kushner.
He grew up in New Jersey, USA, and was raised as an Orthodox Jew.
Jared graduated from Harvard University in 2003 with a degree in sociology.
His admission to the elite university proved controversial, after a book by journalist Daniel Golden – also a Harvard graduate – suggested Kushner and his brother were given a place following a $2.5 million donation from their father.
In 2007, Kushner graduated from New York University, where he earned graduate degrees in law and business administration.
According to a Business Insider poll conducted earlier this year, 67 per cent of Americans “don’t know what Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump actually do in the White House”.
The website adds that both are “top White House advisers with central and far-reaching roles, but their specific responsibilities have long remained vague”.
Kushner’s portfolio has ranged from crafting Middle East policy, to tackling America’s opioid crisis and leading innovation efforts.
What is Jared Kushner’s net worth?
When his wealth is combined with that of his wife Ivanka’s they are worth $700million.
This figure was revealed when the White House released financial-disclosure reports for 180 of its top staffers.
Businessman Kushner is a real estate investor who made $20million while still a student at Harvard, where he bought and sold buildings in the area for fun.
In 2006, he bought the New York Observer newspaper for $10m using some of those earnings – one of a handful of papers to endorse Donald Trump in the presidential race.
Kushner is mostly known for buying the office building at 666 Fifth Avenue at the aged of 26 in 2007, which he purchased for a record $1.8billion.
In 2012, he put in a bid to buy the Los Angeles Dodgers baseball team, but later withdrew it.
He’s the principal owner of Kushner Properties – a role he has held since 2008 when his father who was convicted of tax evasion, illegal campaign donations and witness tampering, was spending a year behind bars.
When did he marry Ivanka Trump?
He married Donald Trump’s eldest daughter Ivanka in 2009, after she converted to Judaism.
The couple live in Washington D.C. and have three children – five-year-old Arabella, three-year-old Joseph and baby son Theodore.
It puts him at the heart of the First Family now running the White House.
Why has his appointment to the White House been controversial?
Democrats say Kushner’s appointment breaches anti-nepotism laws because he is a family member of the President.
However, his position in the White House did not need to be approved by Congress.
On July 11, the Democratic-led US House Judiciary Committee voted to authorise subpoenas for a dozen witnesses including Jared Kushner as part of a broad corruption and obstruction of justice probe of the Trump presidency.
The committee, which could launch an impeachment inquiry if it uncovered evidence of presidential misconduct, is pursuing actions and events described in former Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s 448-page report on Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election.
Mueller found insufficient evidence to show that the Trump campaign conspired with Russia despite numerous contacts between campaign officials and Moscow.
He also did not find that the president obstructed justice, but said specifically that the evidence did not exonerate Trump.
An unimpressed Trump later tweeted: “Now the Democrats have asked to see 12 more people who have already spent hours with Robert Mueller, and spent a fortune on lawyers in so doing.
“How many bites at the apple do they get before working on Border Loopholes and Asylum. Enough already, go back to work!”
In June, Kushner lashed out at people criticising him for failing to report to the FBI a meeting he had with a Kremlin-connected lawyer at Trump Tower in 2016.
He had received an email which had the subject line: “Re: Russia – Clinton – private and confidential”.
Kushner told Axios on HBO that at that time, he was “running three companies” while “helping” the presidential campaign.
Kushner said he hadn’t known “what the hell” the meeting was about – prior to attending – was present for 15 minutes and that it was a “clown show”.
He added: “In reality, the meeting was a total waste of time.”
Has he helped A$AP Rocky secure better prison conditions?
The New York Post reports that the White House has helped hip-hop star A$AP Rocky be caged in better conditions while he’s incarcerated in Sweden.
He’s been locked up for more than a fortnight after it was claimed that he was involved in a street brawl.
The rapper, real name Rakim Mayers, was arrested after an alleged fight in Stockholm, just days before the Wireless festival where he was booked to play.
Rocky’s manager, John Ehmann, complained to Kushner that the detention centre was “inhumane”.
Kanye West and Kim Kardashian also lobbied him to intervene in the case.
Pastor Darrell Scott told the NYP: “Jared immediately got Rocky moved to better living conditions.”
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