Legal AF by MeidasTouch - Trump BRIBE SCANDAL BLOWS UP at WORST TIME for HIM…

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Starting point is 00:01:20 This place will not break us! The Phenomen phenomenon returns to Paramount Plus. The only way we go home is together from new season now streaming exclusively on Paramount Plus. This is Michael Popak, Legal AF. We got a new Trump family kickback and bribery scandal involving Arab countries investing into Jared Kushner's Wealth Fund for no return on their investment, but what appears to be at least to the Senate investigating Jared Kushner's companies,

Starting point is 00:01:49 what appears to be a non-commercial reason they invested just to have foreign influence peddling over a future Trump administration. Let me break it all down for you. This is reporting from the New York Times and the Guardian. We've been following the story for a long time about how it's kind of smelled to high heaven that Jared Kushner as he was leaving the White House continued to use the contacts he made in the Middle East, primarily in Saudi Arabia, in Qatar, in the UAE, to immediately after he left office, including trips he took on the taxpayer dime before he left office to cultivate these contacts

Starting point is 00:02:25 took in $3 billion for no reason. He had no track record of success. He had never been a registered advisor before in any way, shape, and form. His claim to fame, he was married to Ivanka Trump. Now Jared Kushner took in $3 billion, $2 billion of which was from the Saudi Sovereign Wealth Fund, meaning the Saudi government directly. The way that the Arab world contributes or invests, it's always through government-controlled vehicles, meaning the government is investing in Jared Kushner. And what the Senate wants to get to the bottom of is why has the Kushner Trump family made over $157 million since 2021 in fees when they haven't returned any profit to the investment. And so if the governments, the foreign governments, the Arab world governments,

Starting point is 00:03:16 haven't received any return on their investment, why are they staying in the fund? It looks like to everybody that's evaluated it, every independent person evaluating it, is that the Arabs are trying to find a way to put money into Jared Kushner, Ivanka Kushner's and ultimately Donald Trump's pocket in order to curry favor with a future Trump administration. I mean, what else are you going to call it? It would be one thing if in return for the $160 million in fees, Kushner did anything. 2% return on the money, 3% return, 4% return. Give the Arab sovereign wealth funds something,

Starting point is 00:03:55 otherwise it's just dead money sitting in an account controlled by a Trump family senior representative. And you know what that looks like. And that's exactly what the Senate Democrats who are leading the investigations since last June want to know. But now we've got the new reporting that the total earned by Affinity Partners,

Starting point is 00:04:16 Jared Kushner's company, also known as AFIN Management based in Sunny Isle, Florida, is 99% invested by foreign countries. And we've got a series of laws in this country, including a Committee on Foreign Investment to make sure that we don't have foreign influence peddling in our politics or in our government. And look at this, one degree removed from the candidate

Starting point is 00:04:42 running to be the President of the United States again has gotten lined his pockets along with Ivanka with $157 million for nothing or for something. And that's what the Senate wants to investigate. The statement in their letter is that the affinity investors, the infinity investors, two billion of which is the Saudi government, seem not to be motivated by commercial considerations, like a return on their investment, but rather they see it as an opportunity to funnel foreign government money

Starting point is 00:05:13 to President Trump's family and ultimately to President Trump. And that is the concern. And it's not just the concern of Democrats, it's the concern of leading MAGA leaders like James Comer, who during an interview with CNN had this to say about Jared Kushner's lack of ethics on the heels of Chris Christie, who has a very unique position as a Republican. He's a Republican, ran for president, vehement critic of Donald Trump, wanted to be in Donald Trump's administration, fancied himself to be the attorney general in the first

Starting point is 00:05:48 Trump administration and that got rejected mainly because there is a little bit of bad blood between Chris Christie and the Kushner family. Jared Kushner always had the ear of Donald Trump as we know. What's the bad blood? Chris Christie had been the US attorney, federal prosecutor for the state of New Jersey. He prosecuted Jared Kushner's father, Charles Kushner, and put him away for two, he was sentenced to two years for federal crimes,

Starting point is 00:06:14 including illegal campaign contributions, tax evasion, and witness tampering. Is this a lovely family? And the apple doesn't seem to fall far from the tree. Charles Kushner served some time in jail, but then miraculously, of course, Donald Trump pardoned, full pardon to Charles Kushner, and he eventually got out of jail after serving six months.

Starting point is 00:06:34 So let's just put it this way. Chris Christie doesn't go to family dinners with the Kushner family, but he has legitimate criticism, and then Jack Tapper had James Comer respond to the criticism of Chris Christie that Kushner was unethical and even Comer had to agree. Let's roll the clip. Let me play something that Chris Christie told our Kaitlin Collins. Look the Trump family has been involved in grifting for quite some time.

Starting point is 00:07:07 Jared Kushner, six months after he leaves the White House gets $2 billion from the Saudi sovereign wealth fund when Donald Trump had put him in a position to be in the Middle East. What was Jared Kushner doing in the Middle East? Again, sir, it all stinks to me. It all stinks. Yeah, look, and I've been vocal that I think that what Kushner did crossed the line of ethics. But what Christy said, it happened after he left office, still no excuse. You get James Comer to say a Trump family member is unethical while he's trying to make an argument that there's a Biden crime family, that's saying something. So let's further explore this.

Starting point is 00:07:48 Robert Tate in The Guardian did a great job on it. You got affinity partners established by Jared Kushner, I don't know, plus one day after he left the White House. He's taking trips while he's special advisor to the president, hadn't yet left the White House, even though Jan 6th was going on. You remember that day in infamy with Donald Trump. Jared Kushner couldn't wait to get out of the White House, so he decided a good time before Jan 6th and on Jan 6th to be out of the country.

Starting point is 00:08:17 Little known fact that of course explored by the Jan 6th committee is where was Jared Kushner at the moment where he could have helped stop the siege of the capital led by Donald Trump? He was in the Arab world trying to raise money for his new fund on our taxpayer dimes. The trip alone was a several million dollar trip that you and I paid for. Donald Trump doesn't pay taxes, so you and I paid for it in order for Jared Kushner and Ivanka Kushner and ultimately Donald Trump to grift as soon as that and print money as soon as they got out of office. And that's what Jared did. He hit up the Saudi Arabian Private Investment Fund, the PIF, P-I-F, which is notorious. Saudi government is notorious. Last time I looked, they were busy chopping into little pieces an American journalist for the Washington Post and tricked him into arriving in order to get some sort of immigration status or

Starting point is 00:09:12 visa for his wedding and he was never seen from again. It's blood money. I know the golfers are taking it and the PGA has looked the other way because of the amount of money and and we all know that the Saudi Arabian government has been involved with sport washing for a long, long time where they buy public goodwill by sponsoring soccer and football, by sponsoring golf, by setting up tournaments, by buying athletes. They're like, well, how bad could we be?

Starting point is 00:09:40 Sure, we chopped up the journalists, but look, we're friends with Phil Mickelson. I mean, like that. So sport washing, blood money, notorious Saudi Arabians, we know what they've done. Yes, they're a frenemy. They're an ally to a certain degree, but we know we got major problems with the Saudis. The Trump family doesn't have major problems with the Saudis, not when they're pumping $160 million in fees to Jared Kushner. So Jared sets up this fund, which he's never set up before. I spend most of my day in front of a screen

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Starting point is 00:12:40 his mouth with Charles Kushner, lots of real estate development money even after he went to jail. Big fortune there that Jared Kushner is a part of with his brothers. Had so much time and money on his hands before he married Ivanka that he bought a failing newspaper, nobody ever heard of. I used to read it, however, called the New York Observer and tried to be a publisher for a while. I mean, I know people that went to school with Jared Kushner at, I believe, Georgetown. Let's just put it this way. He was not the brightest tool in the shed, the sharpest bulb, you know what I'm saying?

Starting point is 00:13:15 Okay, so with daddy's money, he buys the newspaper and decides in his late 20s is gonna be a newspaper publisher, like he's Charles Foster Cain of Citizen C Kane or something. Well that eventually failed. He met Ivanka and they put the two family fortunes together. This has been his experience. I mean that's about it.

Starting point is 00:13:32 Developed a couple things on the side, then went into the White House with President Trump. Does this sound like a resume of somebody who's a proper investment advisor to take in $3 billion almost overnight from Arab countries, Arab sovereign wealth fund investment. Really? A little tiny company in Sunny Isle, Florida with a little tiny office over a Payless shoe store. I mean, I don't know if it's over the Payless shoe store, but there is a Payless shoe store

Starting point is 00:13:56 that's very close to this address in Sunny Isle, Florida. Is that who you put your money with because you think, he just seems like a very nice guy, like a boy scout. I'll just give him all my money and see what happens. Oh, no return on my investment. That's okay, keep the money. Is that what happens? Now, in order to set that up in America,

Starting point is 00:14:12 you can't just take in other people's money. You have to register. So Jared had to register this with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Okay, so there's that. And he had to disclose all the foreign investments, because we got committees in the Senate and we've got requirements and we've got laws like OFAC about foreign influence and foreign money in our business system and in our political system. So

Starting point is 00:14:38 he had a report. And then he had to report his amount of fees, because people need to know his fees. And he's taken 2% and 3% of the total fund to manage it. Not one of the things he's invested in has returned any money. You'd think some of these people would say, you know, Jared, I gave you $3 billion. I expected something not lost, even with a long-term strategy play.

Starting point is 00:15:00 And you did make, however, $157 million to manage it. So that is now, you know why the Democrats are like, what exactly is he being paid to do? Let me read to you from the letter that was written back in June that we have our hands on by the United States Senate Committee on Finance to Lauren Key, the chief financial officer of Jared Kushner's company.

Starting point is 00:15:21 I write seeking information related to recent revelations that 99 percent of the investment for funds managed by affinity partners comes from foreign sources, including Saudi Arabia, UAE, and Qatar. It is deeply concerning that several Middle Eastern governments are using funds managed by affinity as a means to pay tens of millions of dollars, now we know it's 157 million so far, in fees every year to former President Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner, creating significant conflicts of interest and potential counterintelligence risks. That's what they're looking at. Foreign politically exposed investors present heightened national security and other risks. And we're talking about a guy who's being prosecuted

Starting point is 00:16:08 or was being prosecuted in the Mar-a-Lago case, Donald Trump, because he's compromised national security because he was willing to sell off our top secret documents to the highest bidder or use it in an extortion plan. I mean, that is part of the espionage act claim against Donald Trump that'll be reinstated by the 11th Circuit. So this is not like, well, don't worry, I'll keep it under lock and key. I won't tell my dad-in-law. Come on. I mean, Donald Trump has, you know, his own former FBI assistant director

Starting point is 00:16:38 went on recently and said that he believes that Donald Trump is a foreign Russian asset that's been turned by the Russians. So the entire world knows the thing that Donald Trump continues to deny, that Donald Trump has an Achilles heel, that through flattery and outright bribery, they can get influence over Trump and policy. That's what we're trying to look at. That's what the Senate is trying to look at. From a national security perspective, the letter continues against this company. The US government has recently highlighted how the

Starting point is 00:17:14 opacity and lightly regulated status of private funds can present risk to national security. He then says, they didn't say on page two, as you are aware, Affinity disclosed to US regulators that 99% of the 3 billion worth of assets it manages come from non-US persons. And they have only identified four out of the five investors. That's the other problem from a national security risk. They haven't told us who the secret fifth investor is. Who is the secret fifth investor? We know that two-thirds of the investment is from the Saudi Blood Money PIF Fund, P-I-F Fund, but we don't know the rest. We also know there's been no return on the investment. On page three, it says, Mr. Kushner's limited track record as an investor, including his non-existent

Starting point is 00:18:03 experience in private equity or hedge funds, raises questions regarding the investment strategy behind the seeding investments and lucrative compensation that Affinity received from the Saudi and other sovereign wealth funds. In fact, the Saudi, just to make this clear, Arab advisors to the Saudi Private Investment Fund told the head of the Saudi government, the Sheikh that's in charge of the Saudi government, that dictates over it, that they said that they recommended there be no investment, that he has no track record, and the foreign dictator, Sheikh, said, no, I'm going to invest anyway. Right. Because he wants to gain influence over the Trump family.

Starting point is 00:18:48 Isn't it obvious? What else is the $157 million for? To paraphrase one of my favorite shows on television, Mad Men, that's what the money's for. Right. What else is it for? If they're not getting a return on their investment and why invest it with Jared Kushner, Ivanka Kushner and through

Starting point is 00:19:09 that to Donald Trump? They're not idiots. Does anybody on this hot take believe that the Saudi government and the other Arab governments are idiots? What about all the people that did business with the Trump family? All the hotel stays and all the golf courses and the hotel nearest the White House that were forced upon these people who wanted to curry favor with Donald Trump. He made, he and the family made hundreds of millions of dollars in fees on their golf courses, at their hotels, and on their properties while he was president. It was a kleptocracy. It was the greatest grift in plain sight in the history of the American presidency. There's no other way to put it. And we'll see it again

Starting point is 00:19:53 if he gets anywhere near the White House. I'm going to continue to report about foreign influence peddling and the bribery scandal brewing against Donald Trump and his family Kushner and Ivanka on legal AF We'll do it on a podcast Legal AF the podcast Wednesdays and Saturdays at 8 p.m Easter time right here on this Midas Touch Network find out why we named it legal AF four and a half years ago If you didn't know before now, you know And then you can pick us up on audio podcast platforms and we got a new channel in collaboration with the Midas Touch Network.

Starting point is 00:20:26 Great news, Legal AF, the YouTube channel, Legal AF MTN from Midas Touch Network at Legal AF MTN. Go over there, help us get to 100,000 subscribers before the end of the month. We're only nine days old. Here's your chance to help us build this other pro-democracy channel in collaboration with the Midas Touch Network right now. You might've missed the first three million of the

Starting point is 00:20:50 Midas Touch Network. Help them get to four million. Help us get to a hundred thousand this weekend. So until my next hot take, until my next Legal AF, until my next exclusive content on the Legal AF MTN YouTube channel, this is Michael Popock and I'm reporting. and free subscribe at Legal AF MTN. That's at Legal AF MTN.

Legal AF by MeidasTouch - Trump BRIBE SCANDAL BLOWS UP at WORST TIME for HIM…

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