Special counsel Robert Mueller’s interest in President Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, has grown to include the presidential family member’s efforts to secure financing for his company for foreign investors, according to sources. The efforts took place during the presidential transition and included discussions with non-Russian foreign investors, including in China.
Mueller’s team has been asking questions about Kushner’s conversations with foreign investors during the presidential transition. Those conversations apparently revolved around 666 Fifth Avenue, a billion-dollar office building property in midtown-Manhattan that has reportedly caused Kushner’s family’s company, Kushner Companies, financial trouble. It’s not immediately clear what specific interest Mueller has had in the financial discussions.
During the transition period, Kushner was the lead contact for foreign governments in the incoming Trump administration. He told congressional investigators that he spoke with “over fifty contacts” from fifteen different countries in that time.
It was recently learned that Kushner has added millions in financial debt since first entering the White House. According to financial disclosure forms from both Kushner and his wife, First Daughter Ivanka Trump, the couple’s combined debts have increased from a range of between $19 million and $98 million to between $31 million and $155 million.
The credit lines on which the debt is drawn are from three different banks Bank of America, New York Community Bank and Signature Bank, and are to joint accounts held by Kushner and his mother and his father.