Two major loans to the Kushner Companies for real estate projects came after Jared Kushner, a senior adviser in the Trump administration, met with officials from those financial institutions at the White House, the New York Times reported Wednesday night.
Kushner, who left his role at the family company upon taking a job in the White House, met with Joshua Harris, one of the founders of Apollo Global Management, several times at the White House early last year as Harris was advising the administration on infrastructure, according to the New York Times. In November, Apollo lent the Kushner Companies $184 million to refinance a mortgage on a building in Chicago, per the New York Times. The loan was larger than the average loan Apollo typically approves, according to the New York Times.
Kushner met with Michael Corbat, chief executive at Citigroup, in the spring of 2017 at the White House, where the two talked about financial and trade policy, per the Times. A source told the New York Times that they did not talk about Kushner’s family business. After that meeting, Citigroup lent Kushner Companies $325 million to finance buildings in Brooklyn, the Times reported.
A spokesman for Kushner’s lawyer Abbe Lowell, Peter Mirijanian, told the New York Times that Kushner “has taken no part of any business, loans or projects with or for” Kushner Companies since he started as a White House staffer. Kushner Companies spokeswoman Christine Taylor also denied that Kushner played a role in obtaining the loans.
Charles V. Zehren, a spokesman for Apollo Global Management, told the New York Times that Harris was not involved in the loan approval process for the Kushner Companies loan and that the loan application “went through the firm’s standard approval process.”
Citigroup spokeswoman Danielle Romero-Apsilos told the Times that its loan to Kushner Companies had nothing to do with Jared Kushner and that Citigroup worked on the loan with the Kushner Companies’ business partner.
The New York Times story is just the latest story to break about Kushner’s role in the White House recently. He had his security clearance downgraded, and a Washington Post report revealed that several foreign officials discussed ways to manipulate Kushner, in part through his financial woes.
The Washington Post report’s timing just after Kushner’s security clearance downgrade has left Kushner paranoid that people are out to get him, according to a Wednesday night CNN report.
