The Joys of Nepotism

Earlier this week, The Atlantic magazine published an excellent article (link here) titled "Trump Thought the Rules Didn’t Apply -- and Now He’s Paying the Price" about how the President's contempt and disregard for nepotism and conflict of interest laws and regulations had come to haunt him.

And then the shit really hit the fan for Jared Kushner, Donald Trump's son-in-law and senior advisor, who was already reeling earlier in the week when he learned his security clearance in the White House was being downgraded because the review might never be completed.

Within hours of The Atlantic piece, The New York Times broke a major story (link here) about how Kushner's real estate firm received a $184 million loan from a private equity billionaire who had been meeting with White House officials about infrastructure opportunities. The billionaire took several meetings with Kushner himself in his West Wing office.

Only hours later, the Associated Press broke the story (link here) that a month after the same private equity billionaire loaned hundreds of millions to Kushner, the Securities and Exchange Commission dropped an inquiry into the company that loaned the money.

Hours later, Think Progress broke the story (link here) the the Trump rolled back pipeline safety regulations for companies owned by the same private equity billionaire.

Yesterday, The Intercept broke the story (link here) that Kushner's company was seeking real estate loans directly from the government of Qatar's sovereign fund to prop up financing on their existing properties.

The following month, after Qatar declined to loan money, Kusher then used his position in the White House to provide "critical support to Qatar’s neighbors...Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates" when they orchestrated a blockade of Qatar. When Secretary of State Rex Tillerson attempted to broker an end to the blockade, Kushner undermined those efforts.

NBC then broke the story later yesterday (link here) that Qatari officials were so upset they considered laying out their case to Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who is conducting the criminal investigation into Trump, his family, and their associates.

Whether that alerted him or not, as NBC reported, Mueller and his team now known to be investigating whether Kushner's foreign business ties affected Trump administration policies.

They are also questioning witnesses with knowledge of official administration meetings Kushner held with officials from Qatar, Turkey, Russia, China, and the United Arab Emirates to see if he was also attempting to secure business loans.

The Washington Post had reported earlier in the week (link here) that "officials in at least four countries have privately discussed ways they can manipulate Kushner by taking advantage of his complex business arrangements, financial difficulties, and lack of foreign policy experience." Those four countries were identified as the United Arab Emirates, China, Israel, and Mexico.

Where does Kushner go from here? Even if he's eased out of the White House and into a role in Trump's re-election campaign, the damage can't be undone.

If Kushner is eventually indicted by Mueller's prosecutors, as many legal experts believe is now inevitable, that scandal will consume Trump and his family. This harkens back to The Atlantic piece I first mentioned in the beginning of this post -- the President will have brought this nightmare on himself by appointing the ethically challenged and woefully inexperienced Kushner to one of the most important positions inside the White House.

Stay tuned.