An anonymous reader writes: Jared Kushner has been accused of holding two secret bank accounts in the Middle East that were exposed by Russian operatives who hacked his phone.
Screenshots from Kushner's phone were found on a remote server run by Russia's foreign military intelligence agency, according to a bombshell new book excerpt published by Vanity Fair, which President Donald Trump's son-in-law blasted as "outrageous fabrications."
The claims date back to 2017, when Dutch authorities arrested a Russian operative with the GRU after learning that he was traveling to the U.K. for a spy mission. The Dutch gave him two options: work for the Netherlands Defense Intelligence and Security Service, or get arrested by the British.
The Russian hacker decided to switch teams and is said to have given Dutch spies access to a sensitive GRU server that contained secret files with screenshots of Kushner's iPhone X, according to the excerpt of the book by freelance investigative journalist Matthew Cole.
By 2018, the Dutch had figured out how the Russians got into Kushner's phone—and they stayed on the device to track his activity, the report claims. They are said to have soon discovered Kushner logging into a UAE bank account that had received hundreds of millions of dollars from a bank in Azerbaijan.
At the time, Kushner served as a senior adviser to the president and director of the Office of American Innovation in the first Trump administration.
The bank account, which Vanity Fair dubbed Alpha, was held at First Abu Dhabi Bank in the UAE. It was overseen by Tahnoon bin Zayed, the bank's chairman—and brother of UAE ruler Mohamed bin Zayed.
The bank account stemmed from an idea by bin Zayed and Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to set up a slush fund to help the Trump administration with its foreign policy goals, like erecting a wall between the U.S. and Mexico. Though the slush fund idea eventually fizzled out, the two Middle Eastern royals put at least $2 billion into two accounts for Kushner, the outlet reported.
The other bank account, referred to as Beta, was used by the crown prince to transfer $1 billion for Kushner, according to Vanity Fair. A source was quoted as saying that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu learned that the Saudi royal had money for Kushner and encouraged the Trump son-in-law to have the funds deposited in the Israeli Central Bank instead.
Under the second Trump administration, Kushner, 45, has been acting as one half of the president's makeshift peacemaking duo alongside special envoy Steve Witkoff. He is married to the president's daughter Ivanka.
Kushner denied the allegations in a lengthy statement on Thursday.
"The allegations made by this author are completely insane and never happened," he said. "We denied every one of these claims on the record, yet the author failed to provide a single shred of evidence to substantiate any of them. No bank statements, wire transfer records, account numbers, transaction dates, or other verifiable details were provided to support these extraordinary accusations."
"These are outrageous fabrications being presented as investigative journalism," he added. "This is not journalism. It is a mixture of fantasy, fiction, and advocacy, written by someone who is either deeply disturbed or acting with sinister intent."
Chad Mizelle, an attorney for Kushner, also issued a statement on X refuting the claims. "Before publication, we sent Simon & Schuster a detailed 13-page letter responding to and categorically denying the extraordinary allegations made against my client, Jared Kushner, and challenging the total absence of supporting evidence. Vanity Fair has now published an excerpt amplifying these false and defamatory allegations," he wrote, vowing to "pursue legal action."
