Kushner group got millions in loans after a White House meeting: report

by Julia Manchester - 02/28/18 9:04 PM ET

White House senior adviser Jared Kushner’s family business received millions of dollars in loans from two companies after they took part in White House meetings, according to The New York Times.

The private equity firm Apollo Global Management reportedly lent $184 million to Kushner Companies last November, months after one of its co-founders, Joshua Harris, had advised the Trump administration on infrastructure. During that time, The New York Times reports, Kushner and the company executive met multiple times.

The two reportedly spoke about a potential job opportunity at the White House, but the job did not come to fruition.

{mosads}Citigroup in the spring of 2017 also lent Kushner Companies money totaling $325 million. That loan was offered soon after Kushner met with Citigroup’s chief executive, according to the Times.

The funding from Apollo Global Management went toward the Kushner Companies’ mortgage on a Chicago skyscraper, while the loan from Citigroup was used for the Kushner Companies’ Brooklyn office buildings.

An Apollo spokesman said Harris was not involved in the decision to loan Kushner Companies money and that the loan “went through the firm’s standard approval process.”

A Citigroup spokeswoman said the firm’s relationship with Kushner Companies was not connected to Kushner’s White House role.

{mosads}The report comes one day after Kushner’s White House security clearance was downgraded, cutting off his access to top secret intelligence.

It also comes as special counsel Robert Mueller probes possible ties between the Trump campaign and Russia’s efforts to meddle in the presidential election, including Kushner’s role in the campaign.

A spokesman for Kushner’s attorney, Abbe Lowell, told the Times that Kushner “has met with hundreds of business people” and “has taken no part of any business, loans or projects with or for” his family’s business since joining the White House.

Kushner Companies spokeswoman Christine Taylor said Kushner’s position in the Trump administration had not affected the company’s dealings with financial firms.

“Stories like these attempt to make insinuating connections that do not exist to disparage the financial institutions and companies involved,” she said.

The report comes one day after Kushner’s White House security clearance was downgraded, cutting off his access to top-secret intelligence.

Scrutiny over Kushner’s temporary security clearance had mounted after The Washington Post reported that he asked for more intelligence information than nearly every other White House official.

A memo was reportedly sent last week to Kushner and other White House aides telling them their security clearances would be downgraded from the top-secret level to the secret level.

The move came after chief of staff John Kelly announced that the White House would review the administration’s handling of temporary security clearances.

Kushner’s downgraded security clearance could affect his job working on the Middle East peace process, as well as with other countries.

Editor’s note: Joshua Harris is an investor in The Hill.

Updated at 9:42 p.m.

Tags Jared Kushner John Kelly Robert Mueller