Raskin asks Comer to subpoena Kushner for information on firm’s Saudi ties

House Oversight and Accountability Committee ranking member Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) asked panel Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) to subpoena Jared Kushner to produce documents about money his investment firm has received from Saudi Arabia and other Gulf monarchies. 

In a Thursday letter to Comer, Raskin referenced Comer’s recent public comments expressing skepticism about the post-Trump administration activities of Kushner, the son-in-law of former President Trump who was a top White House aide. Raskin asked Comer to join the Democrats’ probe into Kushner’s firm, Affinity Partners.

Formed in 2021, Affinity Partners reportedly raised $2 billion from an investment fund led by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, and millions more from other Gulf nations.

“I am encouraged by your recent acknowledgement that ‘what Kushner did crossed the line of ethics’ and your repeated assertions that our Committee is ‘investigating foreign nationals’ attempts to target and coerce high-ranking U.S. officials’ family members by providing money or other benefits in exchange for certain actions,’” Raskin said in the letter.

“In light of these concerns, I urge you to pursue a serious and objective investigation by issuing a subpoena to Affinity and requiring the firm to comply with my February 15, 2023, request for documents regarding its receipt of billions of dollars from Gulf monarchies shortly after Mr. Kushner left a senior White House position he used to reshape U.S. foreign policy toward Saudi Arabia and the Middle East in Saudi Arabia’s favor — a request you have thus far allowed Mr. Kushner to ignore and defy,” Raskin wrote.

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A GOP spokesperson for the Oversight Committee brushed off Raskin’s request.

“Ranking Member Raskin’s letter to Chairman Comer is nothing more than an attempt to distract from the mounting evidence of Joe Biden’s involvement in his family’s influence peddling schemes,” the spokesperson said. “If Ranking Member Raskin was truly concerned about ethics in government, then he would join Republicans in our investigation of the Bidens’ blatant corruption. However, Ranking Member Raskin is only concerned about playing Biden family defense lawyer.”

In a CNN interview earlier in August, Comer was pressed on how his committee is approaching business activities of Trump’s family members compared to Republicans’ probe of President Biden’s family’s foreign business dealings — primarily those of his son, Hunter Biden. 

“I’ve been vocal that I think that what Kushner did crossed the line of ethics,” Comer said, but drew a distinction: “But it happened after he left office. And Jared Kushner actually has a legitimate business. This money [to] the Bidens happened while Joe Biden was vice president, while he was flying to those countries.”

In 2022, when Democrats controlled the House, Democrats on the House Oversight committee requested that Kushner produce various documents and information about Affinity Partners and his communications with Saudi officials. Raskin said that Affinity has ignored Democrats’ requests since October.

Raskin had asked Comer in February to join him in renewing that request to Kushner, writing in a letter not previously made public that the House cannot craft legislation to “set a line as to where you can be with relatives of high-ranking government officials with respect to doing business with adversaries overseas” without “examining the plethora of actual and potential ethical violations of the previous Administration.”