Has Jared Kushner Conspired to Defraud America?
Jared Kushner
There has already been ample reporting suggesting that  Mr. Kushner  may have done just that. During a period when  Mr. Kushner  was negotiating President Trumpâs first visit to China   his  family business was trying to sell a debt-ridden property in New York to an insurance company with ties to the Chinese Communist Party. Public scrutiny of the deal scuttled it. Last May  The New York Times described how  immediately after the Trump administration extended a visa program for wealthy investors   Mr. Kushner âs sister invoked  Mr. Kushner  in a presentation seeking Chinese investment in one of the familyâs New Jersey real estate developments.
Such appearances of conflict might not  by themselves  get  Mr. Kushner  in trouble. The president has broad authority to set the countryâs foreign policy  and public corruption laws have been far more difficult to enforce after a 2016 Supreme Court decision overturning the conviction of the former Virginia governor Robert McDonnell on bribery charges.
But  Mr. Kushner  might face more trouble to the extent  he  keeps such negotiations secret from those in charge of carrying out United States foreign policy. When the national security adviser  H. R. McMaster  learned of some of Mr. Kushnerâs communications only after the fact  he was surprised  one official told The Post  and thought it was âweird.â
 Mr. Kushner  has been famously tardy in disclosing  his  business interests and ties with foreigners in  his  application for a security clearance.  He  was still making updates to  his  forms as recently as January. That means  he  has conducted an entire year of foreign policy without officially disclosing all the personal interests  he  may have been serving.
Finally  the risk might be greater still if  Mr. Kushner  negotiated such deals before Mr. Trumpâs inauguration. Thatâs the possibility raised by  Mr. Kushnerâs  pre-inauguration meetings with Russia. In December 2016   Mr. Kushner  met with Sergey Gorkov  the head of a bank under American sanctions  Vnesheconombank. That meeting came after  Mr. Kushner  suggested a back channel of communications in a meeting with Russiaâs ambassador  Sergey Kislyak  according to Mr. Kislyak.
While the proper authorities may not have been informed of this series of meetings  Michael Flynn  the former national security adviser who pleaded guilty and agreed to cooperate with Mr. Muellerâs investigators late last year  did attend or at least knew of them. Steve Bannon  who recently sat for 20 hours of interviews with special counsel prosecutors  participated in the Zayed Trump Tower meeting along with Mr. Flynn and  Mr. Kushner . So if they are a concern to Mr. Mueller  he has recently gotten far more details of what happened at the meetings.
There has already been ample reporting suggesting that  Mr. Kushner  may have done just that. During a period when  Mr. Kushner  was negotiating President Trumpâs first visit to China   his  family business was trying to sell a debt-ridden property in New York to an insurance company with ties to the Chinese Communist Party. Public scrutiny of the deal scuttled it. Last May  The New York Times described how  immediately after the Trump administration extended a visa program for wealthy investors   Mr. Kushner âs sister invoked  Mr. Kushner  in a presentation seeking Chinese investment in one of the familyâs New Jersey real estate developments.
Such appearances of conflict might not  by themselves  get  Mr. Kushner  in trouble. The president has broad authority to set the countryâs foreign policy  and public corruption laws have been far more difficult to enforce after a 2016 Supreme Court decision overturning the conviction of the former Virginia governor Robert McDonnell on bribery charges.
But  Mr. Kushner  might face more trouble to the extent  he  keeps such negotiations secret from those in charge of carrying out United States foreign policy. When the national security adviser  H. R. McMaster  learned of some of Mr. Kushnerâs communications only after the fact  he was surprised  one official told The Post  and thought it was âweird.â
 Mr. Kushner  has been famously tardy in disclosing  his  business interests and ties with foreigners in  his  application for a security clearance.  He  was still making updates to  his  forms as recently as January. That means  he  has conducted an entire year of foreign policy without officially disclosing all the personal interests  he  may have been serving.
Finally  the risk might be greater still if  Mr. Kushner  negotiated such deals before Mr. Trumpâs inauguration. Thatâs the possibility raised by  Mr. Kushnerâs  pre-inauguration meetings with Russia. In December 2016   Mr. Kushner  met with Sergey Gorkov  the head of a bank under American sanctions  Vnesheconombank. That meeting came after  Mr. Kushner  suggested a back channel of communications in a meeting with Russiaâs ambassador  Sergey Kislyak  according to Mr. Kislyak.
While the proper authorities may not have been informed of this series of meetings  Michael Flynn  the former national security adviser who pleaded guilty and agreed to cooperate with Mr. Muellerâs investigators late last year  did attend or at least knew of them. Steve Bannon  who recently sat for 20 hours of interviews with special counsel prosecutors  participated in the Zayed Trump Tower meeting along with Mr. Flynn and  Mr. Kushner . So if they are a concern to Mr. Mueller  he has recently gotten far more details of what happened at the meetings.