Trump just named Jared's father, Charles Kushner — who he pardoned in 2020 — to be Ambassador to France.
Kushner hatched a scheme involving a prostitute to entrap his brother-in-law and eventually pleaded guilty to tax evasion and making illegal campaign donations.
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1.bsky.social) November 30, 2024 at 1:31 PM
The Charles Kushner appointment to be ambassador to France is a Trump trifecta: nepotism, criminality, and incompetence. Profoundly offensive and a setback for US standing in the world.
— David Rothkopf (@djrothkopf.bsky.social) November 30, 2024 at 3:13 PM
Of course Trump has a strong bias in favor of fellow real-estate-magnate criminals… and Jared is dumb enough to have been publicly outraged at the very idea that tax evasion, bribery, and extortion, when committed by the Right people, might even qualify as “crimes”. But I personally suspect there’s at least a few overburdened minions in the Trump cartel who aren’t unhappy that the whole disgusting tragic saga will now be relitigated in the Very Serious Media.
Per the Washington Post, “Charles Kushner, pardoned in 2020, to be nominated ambassador to France” [gift link]:
President-elect Donald Trump said on Saturday he would nominate Charles Kushner, the New Jersey real estate developer and his son-in-law’s father whom he pardoned in 2020, to be the ambassador to France.
Kushner pleaded guilty in 2004 to making false statements to the Federal Election Commission, and he subsequently pleaded guilty to witness tampering and tax evasion stemming from $6 million in political contributions and gifts mischaracterized as business expenses. The ambassador post requires Senate confirmation, but senators usually defer to presidents on such nominees…
For years, the two families built sprawling real estate empires on either side of the Hudson River: the Kushners mainly in New Jersey, and the Trumps famously in New York.
While Trump ran toward headlines, Kushner, by comparison, avoided them, until 2004. That year he pleaded guilty to federal charges including 16 counts of “assisting in the filing of false tax returns, one count of retaliating against a cooperating witness and one count of making false statements to the Federal Election Commission,” a federal prosecutor in New Jersey announced.
The details of the case were eye-popping, even for a state known for political scandals…
Before Kushner was sentenced in 2005, the prosecutor in the case told the court: “What is truly extraordinary is that Charles Kushner has failed to accept full responsibility for his outrageous criminal conduct,” the New York Times reported. The defense memo sharply disagreed and described “grief, regret, loss, devastating heartbreak” and the “acceptance of full responsibility for his crimes.” In March 2005, Kushner was sentenced to two years in prison.
About a year later, Kushner’s son, Jared, purchased the New York Observer, a small Manhattan-based newspaper with a penchant for covering politics, culture, real estate and the salacious misdeeds of those in power. In 2009, Jared married Trump’s daughter, Ivanka, at the Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey, uniting two rich and powerful families. That same year, the prosecutor who pursued the case against Charles Kushner, Chris Christie, was elected governor of New Jersey…
The younger Kushner went on to take an expansive portfolio in his father-in-law’s administration, and the older Kushner reportedly told one close family friend that he hoped to receive a presidential pardon, the Times reported.
In December 2020, as one of Trump’s last acts in office, that pardon was granted…
ANOTHER actual, no-shit, confessed-in-a-court-of-law sex trafficker!
The NYTimes [gift link]:
… Mr. Trump granted Mr. Kushner clemency as part of a wave of 26 pardons he issued with roughly a month left in his first term, along with other close associates including Paul Manafort, his 2016 campaign chairman, and Roger J. Stone Jr., a longtime ally and informal adviser.
In addition to securing a pardon for himself, Mr. Kushner was instrumental in helping others seeking clemency elevate their cases, relying on his son as a bridge to help get applications in front of Mr. Trump.
The case against Mr. Kushner was prosecuted by Chris Christie, the former New Jersey governor who was then a U.S. attorney. Mr. Christie has since become a vocal critic of Mr. Trump’s and continued to describe Mr. Kushner’s transgressions as severe.
Mr. Kushner served two years in prison before his release in 2006.
While widely seen as one of the most prized ambassador positions, the role Mr. Kushner will be nominated for could be complicated by the at times standoffish position Mr. Trump took toward President Emmanuel Macron of France during his first term.
As president, Mr. Trump also expressed support for Mr. Macron’s far-right challenger in the 2017 French presidential election, Marine Le Pen, whose hard-line stance against immigration Mr. Trump praised.
Mr. Macron, who has been a staunch supporter of both the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and Ukraine, will serve until mid-2027. Mr. Trump has repeatedly questioned the value of Western support for Ukraine in its fight against Russia’s invasion, and has also publicly sparred with Mr. Macron over other contentious policy disagreements, including trade issues and the U.S. withdrawal from a nuclear deal with Iran.
Also worth noting that Kushner donated $2.5M to Harvard the year before Jared was admitted.
— Franklin Leonard (@franklinleonard.bsky.social) November 30, 2024 at 5:24 PM
Per NYMag (former competitor to Jared Kushner’s Observer):
Charles Kushner is living the dream. Four years ago, the real estate developer got a controversial pardon from his son Jared’s father-in-law, Donald Trump. Four years later, his family’s real estate company is worth more than Trump’s, and his family’s net worth, per a recent Forbes analysis, has grown to $7.1 billion — nearly four times what it was when Trump was elected president. And now that Trump has been reelected, he’s sending the elder Kushner to Paris and giving him a free place to stay…
Trump didn’t mention any of that in his announcement. He instead emphasized how Kushner “is a tremendous business leader, philanthropist, & dealmaker, who will be a strong advocate representing our Country & its interests.” Trump also didn’t mention that in early 2023, Kushner donated $1 million to Trump’s Make America Great Again Inc super PAC.
It’s not clear if Trump will nominate any of his other pardon recipients as ambassadors. Could Paul Manafort represent U.S. interests in Ukraine? Might Michael Flynn want to return to Moscow? Will Roger Stone get to show off his Nixon tattoo on the beaches of southern Italy? We’ll have to wait and see.
It’s possible — probable — that this announcement was made during a long holiday weekend in hope that it wouldn’t attract as much attention against a backdrop of media stories about travel congestion and recipes for tasty leftovers. Guess we’ll all find out, come Monday!
Before the Ambassador arrives, Letter of Credence is sent to notify the arrival. And the host country issues an Agrément.
If the host doesn't want the Ambassador, the host drags its feet in issuing the Agrément. After a while it becomes obvious, so the country quietly withdraws the Ambassador back
— Viking🔱Fella (@viking.fellas.social) November 30, 2024 at 5:12 PM
Bonus criminal connections…
Exactly, Charles Kushner, father of Jared Kushner and father-in-law to Ivanka Trump, is a close friend of Netanyahu.
— Anonymous ⩜ (@youranona.bsky.social) November 30, 2024 at 6:54 PM
Raoul Paste
I’m sure Charles Kushner was diligently studying the French language while he was in prison.
Imagine how much the French are going to like this guy
scav
The occupational hobby of kicking the church-going base in their faces and insisting they swallow and smile in their victory is continuing apace I see.
Mustang Bobby
He just named Kash Patel to be the next director of the FBI.
Holy crap.
mrmoshpotato
@scav:
The fascistic piles of shit who voted for the fascistic orange shitstain don’t care about the actual teachings of Jesus.
Nukular Biskits
Good evenin’,y’all!
As for the topic, Oh, THERE’S a big surprise! I think I’m gonna have a heart attack and die from that surprise.
different-church-lady
Government by sex criminals, for sex criminals.
different-church-lady
@Mustang Bobby: It’s just a YOLO presidency at this point. James O’Keefe is gonna chair the FCC before this is all over.
Nukular Biskits
@different-church-lady:
Don’t give Trump any ideas!
geg6
Fuck this guy. Fuck ‘em all.
Betty
@Raoul Paste: They are already publishing the story about his prison term.
Gloria DryGarden
Good to know the French can drag their heels on the agreement ..
I’ve run out of swear words
ETA It’s insulting to these other countries.
They are not going to do actual diplomacy with these known incompetents. They’ll go through the motions, it’ll be the opposite of smoothing the way for international negotiations.
Surely these other places know not to trust these kinds of people being put forth.
jonas
Thank heavens we won’t be stuck with corrupt, elitist, Ivy League-insider multi-millionaire snobs running the government for the next four years!
Gloria DryGarden
@geg6: in lieu of swear words, I might write a list of interesting verbs in my notebook.
Geminid
I was hacking around Twitter looking Syria news and ran into one of the many open source intelligence accounts that aggregate and analyze war news. This one calls himself The Intel Crab:
But I think I’ll take a break from Syria news for now. Everything seems to in flux and it’s still a few hours before dawn there. Plenty to see in the morning.
eclare
@Gloria DryGarden:
Yes, they know. Sharing intelligence is also gone with Gabbard in charge.
JWR
May “X” go down in flames. Via NBC:
Gloria DryGarden
@eclare: GOOD.
Oh holy mother of god!
scav
@mrmoshpotato: No, of course they don’t care about the actual teachings, but they do care about their reputations and their pretenses of purity. This doing shit in the street and trying to frighten the horses style isn’t quite their thing. All of the benefits of sinning but with lace curtains, outstretched pinkies and tut-tutting of others is their traditional modus operandi.
schrodingers_cat
@Mustang Bobby: George Clooney must be so proud.
Bill Arnold
@Mustang Bobby:
Holy crap, indeed.
Kash Patel is not loyal to the USA; his only loyalty is to the MAGA GOP. (And himself; such is The Way for today’s GOP.) If he makes an oath (or affirmation) to support the USA Constitution, he is/will be lying, IMO.
If he also believes some of the stuff that is described in his wikipedia page, he’s also living in ultra-MAGA alternative reality, i.e. believes many false things. And he deliberately presents as a bellicose authoritarian, and may be one.
(I looked at a rev in history from a week ago, in case it had been purged. Good that web archive links are included these days.)
different-church-lady
@schrodingers_cat: Certain commenters here just couldn’t stop saying things like BIDEN HAS BRAIN WORMS!!!
And now the guy who actually claims to have had brain worms is going to be in charge of health policy.
Nice job everyone.
different-church-lady
@jonas: Hey now, we’ll still have the corrupt part!
schrodingers_cat
@different-church-lady: They haven’t missed a beat they are still blaming Biden for our current predicament.
Viva BrisVegas
Interesting that Trump is presenting to the French an ambassador who wouldn’t qualify for a visa.
eemom
@schrodingers_cat:
Y’know, on all these threads about what Dems need to do to counter the multigazillionaire right wing propaganda machine, I keep waiting for Clooney et al. to show up and announce the launch of the new left wing gazillionaire backed Antifox News. But somehow, it keeps not happening.
Gloria DryGarden
@Viva BrisVegas: that’s definitely interesting, and insulting. Do the French refuse visas to former convicts, then?
Shakti
@scav: How is this a kick in the face to the church going crowd? They’ve gotten many things they wanted as a result of this man in office. They will get more things they want.
They are having a wonderful time.
I was re reading the story about the income tax evasion and the illegal campaign donations and
What did he ultimately hope to gain from the donations that he made that he did the income tax evasions and made false statements to the FEC that was so important and so crucial that he would get from McGreevey (the candidate and governor who retired under his own scandal) he was willing to witness tamper his own sister’s marriage in a very personal way?
What did I miss in that story?
“He was very unjustly persecuted by making it look like other people broke campaign finance laws by putting their names on the checks he wrote instead. And also by setting up a revenge porn tape to send to his sister for cooperating with investigations.”
I have trouble fathoming the viciousness for what the stakes were — to this guy and his son’s reptile brains.
Martin
@Gloria DryGarden: France doesn’t, but the US does. Much of the EU, plus the UK grants visas to felons. Nobody in the western hemisphere does, to my knowledge, nor anyone in Asia.
Jay
@Gloria DryGarden:
Most countries refuse visa’s or entry to convicted criminals, with out an expungement, pardon or exemption sought.
If you are a Canadian headed to the US with a 40 year old conviction for smoking a joint, there is a lengthy process of forms to apply for exemption with State, that can take a year.
VFX Lurker
I pied them all in July on here, and I blocked/unfollowed/muted them elsewhere.
Looks like I made the right call.
The Unmitigated Gaul
@schrodingers_cat: 1000%. We’ll never know with Joe. Could it have been any worse?
prostratedragon
@Viva BrisVegas: Wouldn’t he clear the requirement, with the pardon? Of course the French are not obligated to receive him as ambassador. Since things in any case are unlikely to improve from this point, maybe they’ll refuse.
Soprano2
@The Unmitigated Gaul: Yes, the R’s could have a 20 seat majority in the House.
Geminid
@Soprano2: Speaking of the House, AP has called the Iowa 1st CD race for Republican Rep. Marriannette Miller-Meeks, after a recount. California’s 45th CD has been called for Democrat Derek Tran. He beat two-term Rep. Michelle Steel.
That brimgs the lineup in the House to 220R, 214D with one race yet to be called. That would be California’s 13th CD adjacent to Fresno in the Central Valley, where Democrat Adam Gray leads one-term Republican Rep. John Duarte by 190 votes, 104,991 to 104,801. Duarte won his first term in 2022 by less than 1000 votes. I believe Gray is a former state legislator.
Van Buren
Thank goodness an old white guy was given an important position and not some unqualified DEI hire!
TBone
Meanwhile, in France
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2024/11/23/gisele-pelicot-rape-trial-final-statements/76495681007/
Gloria DryGarden
@TBone: i hadn’t been following this. But holy cow.