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‘Financial Pawn of the Saudi Monarchy’: House Judiciary Opens Probe Into Jared Kushner

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Original article by Jon Queally republished form Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).

Senior Advisor to the President Jared Kushner speaks during the daily briefing on the novel coronavirus, COVID-19, in the Brady Briefing Room at the White House on April 2, 2020, in Washington, DC. (Photo by Mandel Ngan / AFP via Getty Images)

“You cannot faithfully represent the United States with billions of dollars in Saudi and Emirati cash burning a hole in every pocket of every suit you own,” said Rep. Jamie Raskin.

The ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee on Friday morning announced a “sweeping” probe into alleged self-enrichment by Jared Kushner, the son-in-law of US President Donald Trump who has served as a high-profile White House envoy in the Middle East while also, according to Congressman Jamie Raskin, “soliciting billions of dollars from Gulf monarchies for [his] private business ventures.”

In a letter addressed to Kushner, the Maryland Democrat charges that by pushing for investments in his international investment firm, A Fin Management LLC (Affinity), while also serving as “Special Envoy for Peace” for the Trump administration, he has created “a glaring and incurable conflict of interest” in the eyes of the American people.

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While Raskin points out that Kushner repeatedly vowed to stay out of government during Trump’s second term and, going further, said he would not raise funds for Affinity during that time, both promises were “quickly” broken.

In April of 2022, the New York Times reported how Kushner had secured a $2 billion investment from a sovereign wealth fund directed by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, also known as MbS. In 2018, during Trump’s first term, investigations were demanded over accusations that previous financial ties meant that MbS had Kushner “in his pocket.”

According to Raskin’s letter on Friday:

Mr. Kushner’s investment firm, Affinity Partners, has amassed approximately $6.16 billion in assets under management—including $1.2 billion in the past year alone—with an extraordinary 99 percent of its funding derived from foreign nationals. These include sovereign wealth funds operated by the governments of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Qatar. At the same time, Mr. Kushner has assumed a central role in sensitive geopolitical negotiations across the Middle East and beyond.
Despite explicit public assurances that he would avoid both government service and fundraising during President Trump’s second term, Mr. Kushner has done precisely the opposite. He has inserted himself into the world’s most volatile global conflicts as one of the United States’ chief negotiators all while deepening his financial reliance on, and entanglement with, foreign governments.

Citing the horrific US complicity in Israel’s ongoing attacks on Gaza as well as Trump’s illegal war of choice against Iran, Raskin’s letter to Kushner charges that “your decision to play completely irreconcilable and unethical dual roles has been haunting American foreign policy since President Trump returned to Washington in 2025.”

Noting that the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia remains “your largest investor through Affinity and thus possesses significant financial leverage over” Kushner, Raskin explains to the president’s son-in-law in his letter that “you cannot both be a diplomat and a financial pawn of the Saudi monarchy at the same time; you cannot faithfully represent the United States with billions of dollars in Saudi and Emirati cash burning a hole in every pocket of every suit you own.”

Due to these concerns, explained Raskin, the House Committee on the Judiciary investigation will probe “your conduct and that of your firm with the goal of learning information critical to reforming our bribery laws, conflict of interest provisions, other statutes and rules governing the conduct of government and special government employees, and FARA.”

Offering a list of requests, the letter demands that Kushner provide a detailed account of his communications with various investment partners and entities related to his business dealings and that of his work as special envoy to the president, with a deadline of April 30 to comply.

“This investigation will be a priority for our Committee in the coming period,” Raskin’s letter states. “We expect your full cooperation and that you will provide us with all relevant documents that touch upon how your business interests, family wealth, and governmental duties and missions have merged and converged.”

Original article by Jon Queally republished form Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).

Climate science denier Donald Trump confirms that he knows nothing about democracy and that more liquid gold is being secured according to his policy of global privateering.

Post author:dizzy
Post published:19 April 2026
Post category:Donald Trump Fascism Neo-liberalism new authoritarianism plutocracy politics the filthy rich
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After Helping Convince Trump to Attack Iran, Kushner Solicits Billions for His Private Equity Firm

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Original article by Jake Johnson republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).

US special envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner hold a meeting with Omani Foreign Minister Badr Albusaidi in Geneva on February 26. (Photo by Omani Foreign Ministry/AFP via Getty Images)

“While US servicemembers die in another forever war in the Middle East, Donald Trump’s ‘peace envoy’ is raising money for his private equity firm,” wrote US Sen. Elizabeth Warren.

Jared Kushner, US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, is reportedly trying to entice governments in the Middle East to invest billions in his private equity firm while he simultaneously works as “a special envoy for peace”—a role he appears to have used to help convince Trump to wage war on Iran.

The New York Times reported late last week that Kushner “has spoken with potential investors in recent weeks about raising $5 billion or more for Affinity Partners, his investment firm.”

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Citing five unnamed people with knowledge of the talks, the Times reported that “Affinity’s representatives have already met with Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund,” Affinity’s largest investor. Saudi Arabia’s leader, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, reportedly played a significant role in the behind-the-scenes lobbying campaign urging Trump to attack Iran—Saudi Arabia’s top regional rival.

Bin Salman controls the Saudi Public Investment Fund, which pumped $2 billion into Kushner’s firm in 2022.

“Mr. Kushner’s fundraising is expected to stretch on for the better part of this year,” the Times added. “The efforts show the blurring of the lines between public service and private profit-seeking during Mr. Trump’s second term. Only a few weeks ago, in his role as Mr. Trump’s ‘peace envoy,’ Mr. Kushner met in Geneva with Iran’s foreign minister. The US and Israeli bombing campaign in Iran began shortly after those meetings concluded without a deal on Iran’s nuclear program.”

Last week, Trump said he decided to attack Iran in coordination with Israel—whose prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, is a personal friend of Kushner’s—because the president “thought they were going to attack us,” a view he claimed to have reached after listening to “what Steve [Witkoff] and Jared and Pete [Hegseth] and others were telling me.”

US Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) wrote in response to the Times reporting that “while US servicemembers die in another forever war in the Middle East, Donald Trump’s ‘peace envoy’ is raising money for his private equity firm.”

Abbas Araghchi, Iran’s foreign minister, wrote in a social media post on Sunday that a “fair and equitable deal” between the US and Iran “was within reach” before Trump and Netanyahu started bombing.

“Those providing poor advice to POTUS are responsible for bloodshed,” Araghchi wrote, attaching a screenshot of the Times story on Kushner’s fundraising efforts. “This war is imposed on both Americans and Iranians.”

I've been told that family of a U.S. soldier killed in the war of choice on Iran is relying on public donations.

As fair and equitable deal was within reach, those providing poor advice to POTUS are responsible for bloodshed.

This war is imposed on both Americans and Iranians. pic.twitter.com/fR15XKjfYk
— Seyed Abbas Araghchi (@araghchi) March 15, 2026

Judd Legum, founder and author of the Popular Information newsletter, noted last week that Kushner’s participation in the Geneva diplomatic talks that preceded the US-Israeli assault on Iran “violated his pledge not to be involved in foreign policy in a second Trump administration.”

On Monday, Legum observed that Kushner also said in December 2024 that his private equity firm would not “have to raise capital for the next four years,” allowing him to “avoid any conflicts” of interest.

Trump formally named Kushner a “special envoy for peace” last month, a move that means the president’s son-in-law is now required by law to file a financial disclosure report. Kushner has just days left before the 30-day deadline to file the disclosure.

Donald Sherman, president and CEO of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, wrote in a letter to the White House last week that “Mr. Kushner’s history of financial gains resulting from his time as a White House advisor during President Trump’s first term raises serious concerns about potential conflicts of interest that must be addressed before Mr. Kushner participates in any additional matters that may relate to his own financial interests or those of his investors.”

“The risk of Mr. Kushner’s potential conflicts is particularly concerning because his private investment firm has very publicly done significant business with foreign partners who also have interests in the conflicts on which he has been assigned to work,” Sherman noted.

Original article by Jake Johnson republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).

Donald Trump calls for help from NATO allies in securing the Straight of Hormuz despite saying only 9 days ago that they don't need people to join wars after they've already won. — Donald Trump calls for help from NATO allies in securing the Straight of Hormuz despite saying only 9 days ago that they don’t need people to join wars after they’ve already won.

Donald Trump explains why he established his Bored of Peace

Post author:dizzy
Post published:16 March 2026
Post category:Benjamin Netanyahu Donald Trump Fascism Israel Neo-liberalism new authoritarianism plutocracy politics the filthy rich Zionism
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Experts Pillory Trump Case for War on Iran: ‘Flimsiest Excuse for Initiating a Major Attack’ in Decades

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Original article by Jake Johnson republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).

US President Donald Trump oversees the military assault on Iran with Central Intelligence Agency Director John Ratcliffe, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles at Mar-a-Lago on February 28, 2026 in Palm Beach, Florida. (Photo by Daniel Torok/White House via Getty Images)

“What they posed as the threat they were trying to preempt—an attack by Iran against US forces—is so extremely implausible, it is also laughable,” said one analyst.

Senior Trump administration officials attempted during a briefing with reporters on Saturday to make their case for the joint US-Israeli military assault on Iran that has so far killed hundreds and plunged the Middle East into chaos.

According to experts who listened to the briefing, which was conducted on background, the justification for war was incredibly weak. Daryl Kimball, president of the Arms Control Association, told Laura Rozen of the Diplomatic newsletter that the administration’s argument was “the flimsiest excuse for initiating a major attack on another country without congressional authorization, in violation of the UN Charter, in many decades.”

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During his early Saturday remarks announcing the attacks, President Donald Trump claimed that “imminent threats from the Iranian regime” against “the American people” drove him to act. But Kimball said that administration officials “provided absolutely no evidence” to back that assertion during the briefing.

“What they posed as the threat they were trying to preempt—an attack by Iran against US forces—is so extremely implausible, it is also laughable,” said Kimball.

Following the start of Saturday’s assault, which Trump explicitly characterized as a war aimed at overthrowing the Iranian government, unnamed administration officials began leaking the claim that Trump feared an Iranian attack on the massive US military buildup in the Middle East, prompting him to greenlight the bombing campaign in coordination with Israel and with a nudge from Saudi Arabia.

Kimball, in a social media post, took members of the US media to task for echoing the administration’s narrative. “Reporters need to do more than stenography,” he wrote in response to Punchbowl’s Jake Sherman.

“The American people were lied to about Iraq. The American people are being lied to again today—and once again, it is ordinary people who will pay the price.”

Trump and top administration officials also repeated the longstanding claim from US warhawks that Iran is bent on developing a nuclear weapon, something Iranian leaders have publicly denied—including during recent diplomatic talks. Neither US intelligence assessments nor international nuclear watchdogs have produced evidence indicating that Iran is moving rapidly in the direction of nukes, as claimed by the administration.

Rozen noted that some remarks from administration officials during Saturday’s briefing “suggested Trump’s negotiators”—a team that included Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff—“may not have had the expertise or experience to understand the Iranian proposal to curb its nuclear program.” Rozen reported that one administration official kept misstating the acronym for the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the UN nuclear watchdog.

Trump administration officials, according to Rozen, seemed astonished that Iranian negotiators would not accept the US offer to provide free nuclear fuel “forever” for Iran’s peaceful energy development, viewing the rejection as a suspicious indication that Iran was opposed to a diplomatic resolution—even though, according to Oman’s foreign minister, Iran had already made concessions that went well beyond the terms of the 2015 nuclear accord that Trump abandoned during his first stint in the White House.

Experts said it should be obvious—particularly given Trump’s decision to ditch the previous nuclear accord—why Iran would not trust the US to stick by such a commitment.

The administration’s inability to provide a coherent justification for war tracks with the rapidly shifting narrative preceding Saturday’s strikes—an indication, according to some observers, that Trump had made the decision to attack Iran even in the face of diplomatic progress and left officials to try to cobble together a rationale after the fact.

In a lengthy social media post, Pentagon Secretary Pete Hegseth insisted war was necessary because Iran “refused to make a deal” and because the Iranian government “has targeted and killed Americans,” hardly the claim of an imminent threat push by the president and other administration officials.

Brian Finucane, a senior adviser to the US Program at the International Crisis Group, noted in response that the Trump administration has “sidelined anyone who could articulate… a coherent argument, partly because expertise is deep state and woke and partly because they just don’t care.”

The result is another potentially catastrophic war that runs roughshod over US and international law, puts countless civilians at risk, and threatens to spark a region-wide conflict.

“President Trump, along with his right-wing extremist Israeli ally Benjamin Netanyahu, has begun an illegal, premeditated, and unconstitutional war,” US Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said in a statement on Saturday. “Tragically, Trump is gambling with American lives and treasure to fulfill Netanyahu’s decades-long ambition of dragging the United States into armed conflict with Iran.”

“The American people were lied to about Vietnam. The American people were lied to about Iraq,” Sanders added. “The American people are being lied to again today—and once again, it is ordinary people who will pay the price.”

Original article by Jake Johnson republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).

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Post author:dizzy
Post published:2 March 2026
Post category:Benjamin Netanyahu Donald Trump Fascism Israel Neo-liberalism new authoritarianism plutocracy politics the filthy rich Zionism
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Documents detail towers and bunkers in planned Gaza complex

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This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

US President Donald Trump attends the inaugural meeting of the “Board of Peace”, his new institution focused on progress on Gaza, at the US Institute of Peace in Washington, DC, United States on February 19, 2026. [Murat Gök – Anadolu Agency]

The administration of US President Donald Trump is reportedly planning the construction of a large military base in the Gaza Strip to host a future international stabilisation force, according to contracting records reviewed by The Guardian.

The proposed site would span more than 350 acres and accommodate up to 5,000 personnel. It is intended to serve as an operational hub for a multinational force under the framework of the Peace Council, the body established to oversee Gaza’s post-war administration.

The council is chaired by Trump, with his son-in-law Jared Kushner said to be involved in its leadership.

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Plans reviewed by the newspaper reportedly include the phased construction of a fortified military compound measuring approximately 1,400 by 1,100 metres. The site would feature 26 armoured observation towers mounted on trailers, a small-arms firing range, underground bunkers, storage facilities for military equipment and perimeter fencing reinforced with barbed wire.

According to the report, the base would be built in a sparsely populated plain in southern Gaza. The Guardian said it had viewed video footage of the area and cited a source familiar with the planning process who indicated that a limited number of international construction firms with experience in conflict zones have already conducted site visits.

The proposal comes amid broader efforts to establish a UN-mandated stabilisation force to oversee reconstruction and security arrangements in Gaza following months of Israeli genocide.

READ: Indonesian president pledges 8,000 ‘or more’ troops to Gaza peacekeeping force

This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Keir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone object to them starving people to death, forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing Gaza's hospitals and universities, mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He calls for people to stop obstructing his genocide for Israel. — Keir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone object to them starving people to death, forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing Gaza’s hospitals and universities, mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He calls for people to stop obstructing his genocide for Israel.

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Post author:dizzy
Post published:22 February 2026
Post category:Angela Rayner crap pretend Labour David Lammy Donald Trump Fascism genocide human rights violations Israel Keir Starmer Labour Party Palestine politics Rachel Reeves Wes Streeting Zionism
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US envoy, Trump son-in-law set to arrive in Israel to meet Netanyahu

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This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

President Donald Trump’s Middle East Special Envoy Steve Witkoff makes a speech during the signing ceremony of the Peace Charter for Gaza as part of the 56th World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland on January 22, 2026. [Harun Özalp – Anadolu Agency]

US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff is set to arrive in Israel on Saturday evening, accompanied by Jared Kushner, the son-in-law of US President Donald Trump, according to Israeli media.

Channel 12 reported that Witkoff and Kushner will arrive in Tel Aviv in preparation for a meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

On Friday, Channel 12, citing unnamed sources, reported that Netanyahu is expected to meet Witkoff and Kushner in Jerusalem to discuss the second phase of the Gaza ceasefire agreement.

The sources added that Israel’s security and political Cabinet will convene on Sunday to review developments related to the Gaza Strip.

On Thursday, Netanyahu’s office announced that the Cabinet would discuss early next week the issue of reopening the Rafah border crossing between the Gaza Strip and Egypt.

The crossing was scheduled to reopen in October as part of the first phase of the ceasefire agreement, which came into effect on Oct. 10, but Israel did not comply.

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While Ali Shaath, head of the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza, announced that the Rafah crossing would reopen next week during a televised speech following the signing of the “Board of Peace” charter in Davos, the Israeli side has not confirmed this.

An Israeli official linked the reopening of the Palestinian side of the Rafah crossing to the recovery of the remains of their last captive from Gaza, said to belong to a police officer, according to Yedioth Ahronoth.

The second phase of the agreement also stipulates the disarmament of Hamas and other Palestinian factions, an additional withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza, and the launch of reconstruction efforts, which the United Nations estimates will cost about $70 billion.

The first phase included a ceasefire and a prisoner exchange involving the release of Israeli captives in return for Palestinian prisoners. However, Tel Aviv has continued to violate the agreement on a daily basis.

The Israeli army has killed more than 71,000 people, most of them women and children, and injured over 171,000 in a brutal offensive since October 2023 that left Gaza in ruins.

Despite a ceasefire that began Oct. 10, Israel has continued to carry out attacks, killing 481 Palestinians and wounding 1,313, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.

READ: Gaza power plant on track to resume operations after 2-year-plus shutdown: Administrator

This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.