jared kushner is a person of interest in the FBI's investigation into alleged Russian interactions that the Trump campaign may have engaged in. Last week it was reported that Donald Trump's Senior Adviser proposed to Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak that a secret back-channel be arranged so that talks between the Russians and the campaign could be done without detection by U.S. authorities. It's been long suspected that Russian hacking shaped the outcome of the 2016 election results.
'Looming debt' over NYC skyscraper
A possible motive involving Jared Kushner reaching out to a Russian banker is being tossed around, and one of the theories is it had to do with "looming" debt.
According to ABC News, congressional investigators are examining whether Kushner was "vulnerable to Russian influence" due to "financial stress" involving his family over a Manhattan high-rise purchased during the real estate boom. Donald Trump's son-in-law reportedly had a meeting with a banker from a Russian finance institution last December that was sanctioned by the U.S.
Rep. Jackie Speier (D-Calif.) perceives it as ironic that Jared communicated specifically with a Russian banker who's "under sanction," "related to Putin," and has a "KGB background." Speier suspects Kushner needed funds for the New York real estate located on Manhattan's Fifth Avenue. It was Jared's first major acquisition in Manhattan that was emblematic of his family's move from New Jersey to Manhattan real estate holdings.
$1.3 billion in loans for the property is due in two years and the skyscraper isn't bringing in solid income from office tenants. Kushner's efforts to refinance and redevelop the structure didn't pan out with a Chinese company following the election, which may be partly to blame for the meeting that is now under scrutiny. A commercial real estate analyst familiar with the Kushner firm explains that there's a major financial debt because the family doesn't have a "billion plus" in their account to pay off the tower.
Selling it could be a viable option, but it hinges on whether someone would pay for it.
Investigators want answers
House Intelligence Committee's ranking Democrat, Rep Adam Schiff, will have his panel press Jared Kushner for details about the December meeting with Sergei Gorkov of VneshEconomBank (VEB Bank). Circumstances surrounding the clandestine meeting are unclear and Schiff doesn't believe someone from a bank sanctioned by the U.S.
who's so close to Putin and linked to a Russian spy school is any coincidence. Though a White House official played down the meeting as "general and inconsequential," the nature of the meeting has raised flags.
VEB bank claims that the exchange with Kushner was centered on "negotiations" concerning "business practices applied by foreign development banks, as well as most promising business lines and sectors." Whatever the real objective was, neither Jared Kushner nor the Russian bank have been overly transparent with investigators as of yet.
