{"id":72112,"date":"2017-05-04T12:44:28","date_gmt":"2017-05-04T16:44:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/?p=72112"},"modified":"2017-05-04T12:45:10","modified_gmt":"2017-05-04T16:45:10","slug":"jared-kushner-has-a-huge-non-disclosure-problem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/?p=72112","title":{"rendered":"Jared Kushner has a HUGE non-disclosure problem"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1>Peter Schweizer: Kushner\u2019s Failure to Disclose Billion-Dollar Ties to Goldman Sachs, George Soros Is \u2018Massive, Massive Problem\u2019<\/h1>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<header class=\"articleheader\">\n<figure class=\"figurearticlefeatured\">\n<div class=\"featured-container\">\n<h5><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"attachment-isc-bbn-full size-isc-bbn-full wp-post-image\" src=\"http:\/\/media.breitbart.com\/media\/2017\/05\/Jared-Kushner-April-7-2017-White-House-AP-640x480.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" \/>AP Photo\/Alex Brandon<\/h5>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p class=\"byline\"><span class=\"by-author\"><span class=\"by\">by<\/span> JOHN HAYWARD<\/span><\/p>\n<\/header>\n<div class=\"entry-content\">\n<div id=\"iscembox\" class=\"desktop\"><\/div>\n<h2>Breitbart News Senior Editor-at-Large Peter Schweizer addressed <a href=\"http:\/\/www.breitbart.com\/big-government\/2017\/05\/02\/report-jared-kushner-didnt-disclose-1-billion-loans-investment-ties-goldman-sachs-george-soros\/\">reports<\/a> that President Trump\u2019s son-in-law Jared Kushner had an undisclosed business relationship with Goldman Sachs and billionaire left-wing financier George Soros on Wednesday\u2019s<i>Breitbart News Daily.<\/i><\/h2>\n<p>\u201cThis is a company that not only is Jared Kushner an investor in, he co-founded in 2014,\u201d Schweizer noted. \u201cSo this is not some passive investment that one of his advisers said to put money into, and was forgotten about. He co-founded it. It\u2019s a real estate tech startup. Obviously it has a lot of ambitions. He\u2019s got a lot of money in it, and he failed to disclose it on his financial forms.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>LISTEN:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/w.soundcloud.com\/player\/?url=http%3A\/\/api.soundcloud.com\/tracks\/320670796&amp;color=ff5500&amp;auto_play=false&amp;hide_related=false&amp;show_comments=true&amp;show_user=true&amp;show_reposts=false\" width=\"100%\" height=\"166\" frameborder=\"no\" scrolling=\"no\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat\u2019s a massive, massive problem. The whole purpose of disclosures \u2013 whether you are asking the Clintons to do it, Barack Obama to do it, Jared Kushner to do it, or Mitch McConnell to do it \u2013 is so the American people can know: who are they financially dependent on, who do they have ties to, who might have leverage over them?\u201d Schweizer explained.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe problem is that Jared Kushner\u2019s position in the White House, he is essentially the liaison with the business community. He\u2019s not in charge of protocol. He\u2019s not in charge of public outreach. He is basically the go-between with the business community, so he is ground zero for precisely the kinds of concerns and issues that one might have about very, very troubling financial transactions,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Schweizer conceded that \u201cit\u2019s always hard to look into somebody\u2019s head\u201d and judge whether such a filing omission was a mistake, or an intentional act of deception.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPeople that defend Jared Kushner could say, \u2018Well, look, he\u2019s got a lot of assets, a lot of companies.\u2019 Here\u2019s the problem: it\u2019s hard even with Jared Kushner\u2019s wealth to hide your stake, your involvement, with one billion dollars in loans. So I think this is a massive problem,\u201d he contended.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think a couple of things need to happen,\u201d Schweizer suggested. \u201cNumber One, Jared Kushner needs to look at who filled out the disclosure forms for him. If he\u2019s saying he had no involvement with lacking this disclosure, somebody needs to be fired.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think the second question needs to be: what other investments could be out there lurking that we\u2019re not aware of?\u201d he asked. \u201cTo be clear, it is a federal penalty, it is a crime, to fail to disclose things on your financial forms. I\u2019m not a lawyer, so I couldn\u2019t speak to this particular case, but these rules and laws have real teeth because they present real problems.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOn a scale from 1 to 10, I would put this at a 7,\u201d he concluded, responding to SiriusXM host Alex Marlow\u2019s request to rank the severity of this transparency issue.<\/p>\n<p>Marlow referred back to a recent interview he gave to <a class=\" x5l\" href=\"http:\/\/nymag.com\/daily\/intelligencer\/2017\/04\/breitbart-eic-alex-marlow-talks-about-covering-his-old-boss.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><i>New York Magazine<\/i><\/a><i>, <\/i>in which he observed that Kushner rarely grants interviews or issues public statements, so it is difficult to draw conclusions about his agenda, or measure how much influence he truly wields in the Trump White House.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEvery president has advisers that have input, that offer insight, but those advisers \u2013 whether it\u2019s Trump or Obama \u2013 generally there\u2019s a good public knowledge about them, because they serve them during the campaign. They\u2019ve been public officials, or outspoken on issues in one way or the other,\u201d Schweizer noted. \u201cJared Kushner has not. During the campaign, he said very, very little publicly. Before that, in terms of his politics or his policy views, very, very hard to discern. And he, in a sense, kind of emerges out of nowhere to become this very powerful figure in the Trump White House.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNow, President Trump certainly has a right to do that,\u201d he allowed. \u201cBut I think with that elevation of Jared Kushner needs to come, in a sense, allowing us to lift the hood up from the car and see what kind of engine is underneath there \u2013 to see really what his views are, have him do some public interviews about what his positions are.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Schweizer reiterated that Kushner should expect heightened scrutiny because he is \u201ca liaison with the business community.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe is now the sort of go-between, between President Trump and people like Goldman Sachs and\/or George Soros that might have business in the White House,\u201d he elaborated. \u201cThese are people he does business with, and has commingled assets with. The American people need to know, and for a campaign that I think \u2018draining the swamp\u2019 and transparency were such important issues, this circumstance I think demands that kind of response.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Schweizer called for \u201csome sort of an independent audit,\u201d a term he disliked using but found closest to what he envisions.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere needs to be somebody independently that goes in and looks through his assets to make sure that there aren\u2019t other big conflicts that are undisclosed lurking,\u201d he said. \u201cThe problem is, you really can\u2019t have confidence in whoever prepared these forms for Jared Kushner because you\u2019ve got these gaps. I would be surprised if there aren\u2019t more of these kinds of mistakes or omissions, because it just seems to me this one is so big and so glaring, it\u2019s hard for me to believe that it was just an oversight, and it\u2019s hard for me to believe that this is the only one that exists.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Marlow asked if Kushner specifically having ties with Goldman Sachs and George Soros would cause problems with Trump voters, of if such dealings should simply be understood as inescapable aspects of New York City high finance.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think from the policy standpoint I would have less concern about this, precisely for what you said,\u201d Schweizer replied. \u201cLook, when you\u2019re looking at these large investments where you have very wealthy people or their offices investing, co-investing, you find this a fair amount. So I don\u2019t think this necessarily says anything about Jared Kushner\u2019s politics or policy views, the fact that he\u2019s co-invested with George Soros.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut I do think, as we talked about earlier, there is this mystery. What actually <i>are <\/i>his views about crony capitalism?\u201d he continued. \u201cWhat are his views about the tax rate? What are his views about the Export-Import Bank, and those other issues that have been lurking out there for so long?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe obviously has an important voice and is going to be a player at the table. People know what everybody else around the table is thinking. People basically know what Gary Cohn thinks. They know what Steve Bannon thinks. People don\u2019t know what Jared Kushner thinks, and I think the American people, particularly the people that have supported him, would expect to know and want to know what those views are,\u201d Schweizer said.<\/p>\n<p>He pointed out that Kushner appears to have an extraordinarily broad portfolio in the Trump administration, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.breitbart.com\/news\/trump-son-in-law-jared-kushner-visits-iraq\/\">having turned up in Iraq<\/a> last month.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIs he a diplomat? Is he a liaison with the business community? Is he doing both of those things? If so, what are his views? Does he have any background or any qualifications in those areas?\u201d Schweizer asked. \u201cI think these are all legitimate questions that people have a right to ask, and to want to know. And yet, it\u2019s kind of shrouded with mystery.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI can tell you, if you look through American history, any time there have been family members sort of intermingled with an American presidency \u2013 whether that\u2019s a Kennedy administration, and Bobby Kennedy is Attorney General, or going back to Woodrow Wilson where he was basically disabled and his wife ran the country \u2013 this is the lurking concern and fear that people have,\u201d he recalled. \u201cThat is, who is actually making the decisions? You really can\u2019t fire a family member per se. They\u2019re going to remain your family member. So it creates a different kind of dynamic and environment, that somebody can\u2019t just be told to go away if they make a massive mistake or engage in destructive behaviors. It presents a unique challenge.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think that\u2019s why it\u2019s important for the Trump White House to get out in front of his, and this issue of disclosure. This is sort of Clean Government 101,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Schweizer recalled calling out Hillary Clinton\u2019s campaign manager John Podesta for \u201chis failure to disclose his ties to this company that was funded in part by a Russian fund that Vladimir Putin ran.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe were right to call him out,\u201d he maintained. \u201cThe same thing needs to occur here. This is basic stuff that needs to be done, and the fact that it\u2019s not being done at this point, a hundred days in, is extremely troubling.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>Peter Schweizer is a Breitbart News Senior Editor-at-Large, president of the <a class=\" x5l\" href=\"http:\/\/www.g-a-i.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Government Accountability Institute<\/a>, and author of the best-selling book<\/em>\u00a0<a class=\" x5l\" href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Clinton-Cash-Foreign-Governments-Businesses-ebook\/dp\/B01GZS3A02\/?tag=breitbart035-20\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Clinton Cash: The Untold Story of How and Why Foreign Governments and Businesses Helped Make Bill and Hillary Rich<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><em>Breitbart News Daily<\/em> airs on SiriusXM Patriot 125 weekdays from 6:00 a.m.\u00a0to 9:00 a.m.\u00a0Eastern.<\/p>\n<p>Listen to <a class=\" x5l\" href=\"http:\/\/soundcloud.com\/breitbart\/breitbart-news-daily-peter-schweizer-may-3-2017\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">the full audio of the interview<\/a> above.<\/p>\n<p>___<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.breitbart.com\/radio\/2017\/05\/03\/peter-schweizer-kushners-failure-to-disclose-billion-dollar-ties-to-goldman-sachs-george-soros-is-massive-massive-problem\/\">http:\/\/www.breitbart.com\/radio\/2017\/05\/03\/peter-schweizer-kushners-failure-to-disclose-billion-dollar-ties-to-goldman-sachs-george-soros-is-massive-massive-problem\/<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Peter Schweizer: Kushner\u2019s Failure to Disclose Billion-Dollar Ties to Goldman Sachs, George Soros Is \u2018Massive, Massive Problem\u2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-72112","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72112","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=72112"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72112\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=72112"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=72112"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=72112"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}