In 2005, Kushner was convicted of illegal campaign contributions, tax evasion, and witness tampering, and was sentenced to two years' imprisonment, which he served in the Federal Prison Camp, Montgomery. As a convicted felon, he was also disbarred in three states. He later received a pardon issued by his son's father-in-law President Donald Trump on December 23, 2020.[2][3] Kushner has donated significant amounts to Trump's campaigns. Previously, he was a major Democratic party donor.[4][5]
His elder son Jared is the husband of Ivanka Trump, the daughter of the President of the United StatesDonald Trump, during whose first presidential administration he served as senior advisor from 2017 to 2021. He has three other children, including his younger son Joshua, a venture capitalist who is married to the supermodel Karlie Kloss.
In 1985, Kushner began managing his father's portfolio of 4,000 New Jersey apartments.[6][10] He founded Kushner Companies – headquartered in Florham Park, New Jersey – and became its chairman.[6][10] In 1999, he won the Ernst & Young New Jersey Entrepreneur of the Year award. At the time, Kushner Companies had grown to more than 10,000 residential apartments, a homebuilding business, commercial and industrial properties, and a community bank.[15]
Criminal conviction and pardon
On June 30, 2004, Kushner was fined $508,900 by the Federal Election Commission for contributing to Democratic political campaigns in the names of his partnerships when he lacked authorization to do so.[16] In 2005, following an investigation by United States Attorney for the District of New JerseyChris Christie negotiated a plea agreement with him, under which Kushner pleaded guilty to 18 counts of illegal campaign contributions, tax evasion, and witness tampering.[17][18][19] The witness tampering charge arose from Kushner's retaliation against William Schulder, his sister Esther's husband, who was cooperating with federal investigators against Kushner.[20] Kushner hired a prostitute to seduce his brother-in-law, arranging to record a sexual encounter between the two and send the tape to his sister.[17] He was sentenced to two years in prison and served 14 months at Federal Prison Camp, Montgomery in Alabama before being sent to a halfway house in Newark, New Jersey, to complete his sentence.[17][21][22][23] He was released from prison on August 25, 2006.[24]
As a convicted felon, Charles Kushner was also disbarred and prohibited from practicing law in New Jersey,[25] New York,[26] and Pennsylvania.[27] Republican Chris Christie, who chaired Trump’s first transition team, said Kushner committed "one of the most loathsome, disgusting crimes" he prosecuted.[28]
December 2020 pardon granted by Donald Trump
On December 23, 2020, President Trump issued a full and unconditional pardon to Kushner, his daughter's father-in-law,[29] citing his record of "reform" and "charity".[2][3]
New York City real estate
After being released from prison, Kushner shifted his business activities from New Jersey to New York City. In early 2007, Kushner Companies bought the 666 Fifth Avenue building in Manhattan for $1.8 billion.[30] In August 2018, Brookfield Properties signed a 99-year lease for the property, paying $1.286 billion and effectively taking full ownership of the building.[31][32][33]
As of the end of 2016, Kushner and his family were estimated to have a net worth of $1.8 billion.[9] He has employed two fellow inmates with whom he became acquainted in prison.[34]
Donations
Kushner met personally with Harvard University's president and in 1998 donated $2.5 million to Harvard.[35] His son, Jared, was then beginning his senior year of high school, where he was not a particularly good student with test scores below Ivy League standards.[36] Jared was admitted to the Harvard freshman class of 1999.[36]
In August 2015, Kushner donated $100,000 to Donald Trump's Make America Great Again PAC, a super PAC supporting Trump's 2016 campaign for the presidency.[41] Kushner and his wife also hosted a reception for Trump at their Jersey Shore seaside mansion in Long Branch.[42] In 2023, he was one of the largest donors to a Trump super PAC, donating $1 million.[4][43][5]
^Lizzie Widdicombe, [Ivanka and Jared's Power Play: How the patrician couple came to have an outsized influence on a populist Presidential campaign], The New Yorker (August 22, 2016).
