Investigations have been launched into the property development business run by Charles Kushner, father of White House adviser and President Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner. Until now he has remained publicly silent as questions have been raised about Jared Kushner and whether the company, a property development business, benefited from his powerful job, the Washington Post reports. One reason for that silence may have stemmed from the 63-year-old Kushner’s background. He was convicted in 2005 of several federal crimes and spent 14 months in an Alabama federal prison, where his son visited him almost every weekend.
In his first interview since his son entered the White House, Charles Kushner said the company has no concerns about the investigations and dismissed suggestions that his son’s work with Trump has made it harder to obtain financing for the family’s many real estate projects. The U.S. Attorney in Brooklyn subpoenaed information on Kushner Cos. projects that used a program in which foreigners can invest $500,000 in exchange for fast-track status for U.S. residency and possible citizenship. Jared Kushner’s work on what the Post calls a judicial overhaul plan is influenced by what he learned from his father’s imprisonment. After the elder Kushner’s prison term, he spent the rest of his two-year sentence in a halfway house in Newark. Kushner hired two men who had been inmates with him in Alabama. “I’m passionate about judicial reform as I have seen firsthand the injustice of long sentences and the destruction of human lives who have no hope,” Charles Kushner said. “I believe in second chances, when appropriate, as we are all human and we all make mistakes.” He said the issue is “close and personal to Jared and close and personal to our family because we have seen it from both sides.”