US special counsel Robert Mueller is probing US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner’s efforts to get foreign investors beyond Russia to provide financing for his company during the presidential transition, including in China, CNN reported on Monday.
The probe was previously said to have only focused on the Russia contacts of Kushner, the campaign’s data analytics and Kushner’s ties with disgraced former US national security adviser Michael Flynn.
Mueller’s team is probing Kushner’s conversations during the presidential transition to get financing for the Kushner Co-backed 666 Fifth Avenue office building in New York City after financial setbacks, CNN said, citing people familiar with the investigation.
Kushner’s father founded the real-estate developer and lender.
CNN said Mueller’s investigators have yet to contact Kushner Co or request interviews with its executives and the reasons behind the focus on the outreach to foreign investors are unclear.
Kushner played a leading role in the presidential transition team’s contacts with foreign governments and has indicated that he spoke during that time with more than 50 contacts from more than 15 countries.
One week after Trump’s Nov. 8, 2016, election, Kushner met the chairman and other executives of China’s Anbang Insurance, the New York Times has reported.
Kushner and Anbang chairman Wu Xiaohui (吳小暉) were close to finishing a deal for the Chinese conglomerate to invest in 666 Fifth Avenue, but the talks broke down, the Times said.
Kushner purchased the building in 2007 for US$1.8 billion in a mostly debt deal, but the housing crisis triggered financial setbacks for 666 Fifth Avenue, leading Vornado Realty Trust to take a 49.5 percent stake in 2011.
“In all of Mr Kushner’s extensive cooperation with all inquiries, there has not been a single question asked nor document sought on the 666 building or Kushner Co deals,” Kushner attorney Abbe Lowell told CNN.
Meanwhile, the eldest son of the US president has arrived in India to help sell luxury apartments and lavish attention on wealthy Indians who have already bought units in Trump-branded developments.
Donald Trump Jr yesterday morning posed for photographs with Indian developers, who are building the complexes in four cities.
Later in the week, he was scheduled to make a speech about Indo-Pacific relations at a New Delhi business summit, sharing the stage with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The Trump Organization has licensing agreements with all its Indian business partners, who build the properties and acquire the Trump name in exchange for a fee.
A barrage of glossy full-page ads in Indian newspapers promise that buyers who order apartments in that development by Thursday will get “a conversation and dinner” with Trump Jr one day later.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese