Dems demand information on Kushner Wall Street loans

Top Democrats are reportedly pushing for answers on $500 million in loans granted to Kushner Companies last year by a pair of Wall Street firms after representatives for the two firms took part in White House meetings.

ABC News reports that lawmakers, including Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass), Tom Carper (D-Del.) and Gary Peters (D-Mich.) and Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.), sent a pair of letters Friday to Citigroup and Apollo Global Management (AGM) demanding information about the loans.

{mosads}

The letters accuse Citigroup and AGM of not providing adequate information following a request made in March for information and documents related to all meetings between the firms and Kushner Companies employees.

AGM 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. Citigroup, meanwhile, lent Kushner Companies a total of $325 million shortly after the firm’s chief executive met with Kushner in Washington.

A March letter from the same lawmakers to the two firms declared that reports Kushner Companies received the loans soon after officials met with Kushner in the White House “raise significant questions about what was discussed in these meetings, the terms of these loans, and what Mr. Kushner knew about Kushner Companies’ solicitations for financial assistance.”

Both firms have denied that meetings with Kushner in the White House were tied to the loans. Kushner’s attorney, Abbe Lowell, issued a statement through a spokesman, saying the president’s son-in-law “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. 

A spokesman for AGM told The Hill in a statement that the firm plans to respond accordingly to the lawmakers’ letter.

“Apollo has received the letter, and will respond,” Charles Zehren said.

A spokeswoman for Kushner Companies said in March that news stories about the company’s financial transactions “attempt to make insinuating connections that do not exist to disparage the financial institutions and companies involved.”

—Updated at 2:24 p.m.