Charlie Kushner, the father of President Trump’s adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner, said Friday that the ethics watchdogs scrutinizing his family’s real estate business are “jerks” who “can’t get a real job.”
“Do you really want to know what I think about those jerks?” Charlie Kushner asked The Real Deal. “I think they’re a waste of time. They’re guys who can’t get a real job, ethics watchdog? Who gets a job — ethics watchdog? Give me a break.”
The wealthy investor dismissed concerns of ethics violations and conflicts of interest within his family business in an interview published Friday, calling recent probes into the Kushner Cos.’ loans and financial records “nonsense.”
“We have a lot of assets, a lot of net worth, and it’s inter-tangled with trusts, and kids and a lot of things. So no matter what we did, you know, no matter what we did, there would have been some kind of potential or perceived conflict,” Charlie Kushner said. “We did the best we could.”
He said the watchdogs are intent on attacking the wealthy. “All they want to do is assure that poor, not successful people go into government,” Charlie Kushner said.
White House attorneys are assessing whether Charlie Kushner’s son is in violation of any ethics rules. Jared Kushner serves as an unpaid senior adviser to the president and still has stakes in the family business.
The Kushner Cos. received millions in loans, some of which went toward mortgage payments on a Chicago high-rise. The loan followed shortly after Jared Kushner reportedly met with private equity firm Apollo Global Management and Citigroup in 2017.
The investor’s son has made multiple mistakes on his financial disclosures regarding his ties to the company.
Jared Kushner has had to make repeated changes to his disclosure forms for the Office of Government Ethics, revealing additional business interests and holdings related to his family’s real estate empire.