Bring on the machatunim
After pardoning Jared Kushner’s father in his first term, Trump picks him as ambassador to France for his second
President-elect Donald Trump says he is nominating Charles Kushner, his son-in-law’s father, to be ambassador to France, marking a reversal of Mr. Kushner’s public standing after he served time in prison nearly two decades ago.
Mr. Kushner, who is from Elizabeth and raised his famly in Livingston, and whose son Jared is married to Ivanka Trump, went to jail in 2005 for fraud, tax evasion and witness tampering. His crime generated national headlines long before his Trump connection because it included paying a prostitute to seduce his brother-in-law.
Mr. Kushner’s story is nearly Shakespearean in the intensity and maliciousness of its pursuit of revenge. While he was being investigated for making illegal campaign contributions, his brother-in-law, William Schulder, who was married to his sister Esther, became a witness, cooperating with federal prosecutors. To defuse the threat Mr. Schulder posed to him, Mr. Kushner hired a sex worker to seduce his brother-in-law, and then videoed their time together in a motel in Bridgewater. Next, he sent a copy of that video to his sister.
It didn’t work. The Schulders turned the tape over to the authorities, and the case unraveled from there. In the end, Mr. Kushner pleaded guilty to 16 counts of tax evasion, one count of lying to the FEC, and one of retaliating against a federal witness. He served 14 months in a prison camp in Alabama and completed his two-year sentence in a halfway house in Newark.
The case also is the root of the feud between the Kushners and former governor Chris Christie, who was U.S. Attorney for New Jersey at the time and prosecuted the charges.
Years later, when Mr. Christie was on “Firing Line,” he told the program’s host, Margaret Hoover, that “It’s one of the most loathsome, disgusting crimes that I prosecuted…and I was the U.S. attorney in New Jersey.”
The case against Mr. Kushner produced distress in his Orthodox Jewish community, where he was a generous donor.
Mr. Trump pardoned Mr. Kushner four years ago, citing his record of service since his time in prison. Now, the president-elect has chosen Mr. Kushner to represent the United States with one of its most prominent allies.
“I am pleased to nominate Charles Kushner, of New Jersey, to serve as the U.S. Ambassador to France,” Mr. Trump wrote on Truth Social, his social network, on Saturday. “He is a tremendous business leader, philanthropist, & dealmaker, who will be a strong advocate representing our Country & its interests.”
Mr. Trump has chosen another of his children’s fathers-in-law (known as “machatunim” in Jewish parlance) for a different post. Massad Boulos, the Lebanese-American businessman who is the father of Tiffany Trump’s husband, Michael Boulos, will be his senior advisor for Arab and Middle Eastern affairs. Mr. Boulos is seen as having played a major role in strengthening Trump’s support among Arab Americans in the November elections, particularly in Michigan, and will hold a portfolio pivotal to Mr. Trump’s promise to expand the Abraham Accords between Israel and Arab nations. He will serve alongside Mr. Trump’s friend and fellow real estate mogul, Steve Witkoff, who is Jewish, and who the president-elect also tapped to be a Middle East envoy.
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Joanne Palmer contributed to this report
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