By Kanishka Singh
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -A U.S. House of Representatives committee said on Thursday that it was investigating the Saudi Arabian government’s $2 billion investment with a firm of Jared Kushner, the son-in-law of former President Donald Trump.
“The Committee on Oversight and Reform is investigating whether you (Kushner) have improperly traded on your government position to obtain billions of dollars from the Saudi government and whether your personal financial interests improperly influenced U.S. foreign policy during the administration of your father-in-law, former President Trump,” Representative Carolyn Maloney, the New York Democrat who leads the House Committee on Oversight and Reform, said on Thursday in a letter.
Maloney sent the letter to Kushner, who served as a White House adviser to Trump, requesting documents on the investment in his firm, A Fin Management LLC (Affinity).
A spokesman for Kushner told the New York Times that he “abided by all legal and ethical guidelines both during and after his government service.” The firm did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment on Thursday.
Records showed that the firm is registered as an investment adviser with about $2.5 billion under management in pooled investment vehicles.
In a typical private equity investment, Saudi Arabia would have put money into a fund managed by A Fin, rather than investing in the firm itself. The details of this investment were not known.
“Your support for Saudi interests was unwavering, even as Congress and the rest of the world closely scrutinized the country’s human rights abuses in Yemen, the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi by Saudi assassins tied to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, and Saudi Arabia’s crackdown on political dissidents at home,” Maloney wrote in the letter.
Kushner incorporated the firm after Trump left office and it secured the $2 billion investment from Saudi Arabia six months later, Maloney added.
(Reporting by Kanishka Singh; Editing by Katharine Jackson and Cynthia Osterman)