President-elect Donald Trump on Saturday nominated Charles Kushner, the father of his son-in-law Jared Kushner, as the US ambassador to France, in the latest of several controversial picks.
Kushner “is a tremendous business leader, philanthropist, & dealmaker, who will be a strong advocate representing our Country & its interests,” Trump said on his Truth Social website, adding that Jared “worked closely with me in the White House.”
The choice is in keeping with Trump’s pattern, so far, of selecting people, often wealthy, who are close to his family or of proven loyalty. Kushner is a multimillionaire real estate executive and former attorney; his son was a senior adviser during Trump’s first term.
Trump did not mention, however, that the elder Kushner once served jail time — a two-year sentence, most of it served in a federal prison.
Kushner, who is now 70, pleaded guilty in 2004 to 18 counts of tax evasion, witness tampering and making illegal campaign contributions.
The case, which was prosecuted by then US attorney Chris Christie, included sordid details, to which Kushner admitted: that he had hired a prostitute to seduce his brother-in-law, a man cooperating in a campaign finance inquiry, and then videotaped the encounter and sent it to the man’s wife, Kushner’s sister, to dissuade her from testifying against him.
Christie, who worked on Trump’s first presidential transition team and then opposed him in this year’s Republican primary contests, later said Kushner had committed a “loathsome” and “disgusting crime.”
In 2020, Trump issued a pardon to Kushner, whose conviction had resulted in him being disbarred in three states.
Nominees for key ambassadorships are often business associates of a president-elect, or major political donors. But it is rare, if not unprecedented, to name a convicted felon.
The first two men to fill the prestigious Paris post were famed inventor and statesman Benjamin Franklin and a future president, Thomas Jefferson.
If confirmed, Kushner would succeed Denise Bauer, a former ambassador to Belgium who was a major Democratic fundraiser and donor.