President-elect Donald Trump said on Saturday he would nominate Charles Kushner, the New Jersey real estate developer and his son-in-law’s father whom he pardoned in 2020, to be the ambassador to France.
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Kushner pleaded guilty in 2004 to making false statements to the Federal Election Commission, and he subsequently pleaded guilty to witness tampering and tax evasion stemming from $6 million in political contributions and gifts mischaracterized as business expenses. The ambassador post requires Senate confirmation, but senators usually defer to presidents on such nominees.
“He is a tremendous business leader, philanthropist, & dealmaker, who will be a strong advocate representing our Country & its interests,” Trump wrote in a post on TruthSocial. Trump added, “Together, we will strengthen America’s partnership with France, our oldest Ally, & one of our greatest!”
The current ambassador, Denise Campbell Bauer, has been in the role since December 2021 and from August 2013 until January 2017 was the ambassador to Belgium.
For years, the two families built sprawling real estate empires on either side of the Hudson River: the Kushners mainly in New Jersey, and the Trumps famously in New York.
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While Trump ran toward headlines, Kushner, by comparison, avoided them, until 2004. That year he pleaded guilty to federal charges including 16 counts of “assisting in the filing of false tax returns, one count of retaliating against a cooperating witness and one count of making false statements to the Federal Election Commission,” a federal prosecutor in New Jersey announced.
The details of the case were eye-popping, even for a state known for political scandals.
“Kushner further admitted he devised a scheme to retaliate against a cooperating witness and her husband by having a prostitute seduce the husband and covertly filming them having sex,” the federal prosecutor wrote in a statement at the time, announcing Kushner’s guilty plea.
Kushner said in court that he had paid a private investigator $25,000 to arrange to seduce and videotape the cooperating witness’s husband. Kushner admitted to “personally recruiting the prostitute and instructing that the videotape be mailed to the cooperating witness.”
Before Kushner was sentenced in 2005, the prosecutor in the case told the court: “What is truly extraordinary is that Charles Kushner has failed to accept full responsibility for his outrageous criminal conduct,” the New York Times reported. The defense memo sharply disagreed and described “grief, regret, loss, devastating heartbreak” and the “acceptance of full responsibility for his crimes.” In March 2005, Kushner was sentenced to two years in prison.
About a year later, Kushner’s son, Jared, purchased the New York Observer, a small Manhattan-based newspaper with a penchant for covering politics, culture, real estate and the salacious misdeeds of those in power. In 2009, Jared married Trump’s daughter, Ivanka, at the Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey, uniting two rich and powerful families. That same year, the prosecutor who pursued the case against Charles Kushner, Chris Christie, was elected governor of New Jersey.
By 2016, the younger Kushner and the man who successfully prosecuted his father were working together on a seemingly quixotic mission of getting Donald Trump elected president. After his unlikely victory, the tension between Kushner and Christie boiled over, with Christie being kicked out of the Trump transition team he was leading, and the more than two dozen transition books he had prepared reportedly were thrown in a dumpster.
The younger Kushner went on to take an expansive portfolio in his father-in-law’s administration, and the older Kushner reportedly told one close family friend that he hoped to receive a presidential pardon, the Times reported.
In December 2020, as one of Trump’s last acts in office, that pardon was granted.
“Since completing his sentence in 2006, Mr. Kushner has been devoted to important philanthropic organizations and causes, such as Saint Barnabas Medical Center and United Cerebral Palsy,” Trump’s press secretary said in a statement at the time. “This record of reform and charity overshadows Mr. Kushner’s conviction and 2 year sentence for preparing false tax returns, witness retaliation, and making false statements to the FEC.”
Get the latest election news and resultsKushner pleaded guilty in 2004 to making false statements to the Federal Election Commission, and he subsequently pleaded guilty to witness tampering and tax evasion stemming from $6 million in political contributions and gifts mischaracterized as business expenses. The ambassador post requires Senate confirmation, but senators usually defer to presidents on such nominees.
“He is a tremendous business leader, philanthropist, & dealmaker, who will be a strong advocate representing our Country & its interests,” Trump wrote in a post on TruthSocial. Trump added, “Together, we will strengthen America’s partnership with France, our oldest Ally, & one of our greatest!”
The current ambassador, Denise Campbell Bauer, has been in the role since December 2021 and from August 2013 until January 2017 was the ambassador to Belgium.
For years, the two families built sprawling real estate empires on either side of the Hudson River: the Kushners mainly in New Jersey, and the Trumps famously in New York.
🏛️
Follow Politics
While Trump ran toward headlines, Kushner, by comparison, avoided them, until 2004. That year he pleaded guilty to federal charges including 16 counts of “assisting in the filing of false tax returns, one count of retaliating against a cooperating witness and one count of making false statements to the Federal Election Commission,” a federal prosecutor in New Jersey announced.
The details of the case were eye-popping, even for a state known for political scandals.
“Kushner further admitted he devised a scheme to retaliate against a cooperating witness and her husband by having a prostitute seduce the husband and covertly filming them having sex,” the federal prosecutor wrote in a statement at the time, announcing Kushner’s guilty plea.
Kushner said in court that he had paid a private investigator $25,000 to arrange to seduce and videotape the cooperating witness’s husband. Kushner admitted to “personally recruiting the prostitute and instructing that the videotape be mailed to the cooperating witness.”
Before Kushner was sentenced in 2005, the prosecutor in the case told the court: “What is truly extraordinary is that Charles Kushner has failed to accept full responsibility for his outrageous criminal conduct,” the New York Times reported. The defense memo sharply disagreed and described “grief, regret, loss, devastating heartbreak” and the “acceptance of full responsibility for his crimes.” In March 2005, Kushner was sentenced to two years in prison.
About a year later, Kushner’s son, Jared, purchased the New York Observer, a small Manhattan-based newspaper with a penchant for covering politics, culture, real estate and the salacious misdeeds of those in power. In 2009, Jared married Trump’s daughter, Ivanka, at the Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey, uniting two rich and powerful families. That same year, the prosecutor who pursued the case against Charles Kushner, Chris Christie, was elected governor of New Jersey.
By 2016, the younger Kushner and the man who successfully prosecuted his father were working together on a seemingly quixotic mission of getting Donald Trump elected president. After his unlikely victory, the tension between Kushner and Christie boiled over, with Christie being kicked out of the Trump transition team he was leading, and the more than two dozen transition books he had prepared reportedly were thrown in a dumpster.
The younger Kushner went on to take an expansive portfolio in his father-in-law’s administration, and the older Kushner reportedly told one close family friend that he hoped to receive a presidential pardon, the Times reported.
In December 2020, as one of Trump’s last acts in office, that pardon was granted.
“Since completing his sentence in 2006, Mr. Kushner has been devoted to important philanthropic organizations and causes, such as Saint Barnabas Medical Center and United Cerebral Palsy,” Trump’s press secretary said in a statement at the time. “This record of reform and charity overshadows Mr. Kushner’s conviction and 2 year sentence for preparing false tax returns, witness retaliation, and making false statements to the FEC.”
