Donald Trump’s intention to name his son-in-law Jared Kushner to a senior White House post violates ethical standards – and the smell test.
A 1967 anti-nepotism law states that a government official can’t hire relatives “in the agency in which he is serving or over which he exercises jurisdiction or control.” Kushner’s lawyers are said to be preparing to argue that the White House is somehow not an “agency” and so Trump can do as he wishes, but they are probably wrong and without a change to the law the appointment of Kushner would likely lead to litigation aimed at forcing him out.
And legalities aside, a world leader turning his son-in-law into one of his foremost advisers has an extremely creepy vibe, because it’s straight out of the third world dictator playbook. Raul Castro’s son-in-law has worked for him for decades and now runs the Cuban military’s businesses. Saddam Hussein’s son-in-law was perhaps his top deputy and supervised his WMD programs during the 1980s. Further back, Benito Mussolini’s son-in-law served as his foreign minister (until Mussolini had him executed).
Also, as a major real estate investor himself, Kushner will also bring with him glaring conflicts of interest almost as labyrinthine as Trump’s. Kushner could of course sell all his assets and put the proceeds in a blind trust, but as with Trump the law does not require it and Kushner appears to have no intention of doing so.
As the New York Times recently reported, throughout the presidential campaign Kushner was negotiating a deal with Anbang Insurance Group, a Chinese financial conglomerate with likely ties to the country’s leadership. Just days after Trump’s victory, Kushner joined the company’s Chinese executives for a celebratory meal featuring $2,100 bottles of wine. Yet when the Chinese government contacted the Obama White House to express its unhappiness about Trump’s post-election call to the president of Taiwan, the administration didn’t pass the news along to Trump’s security team but to Kushner.
According to the Times, Kushner also is developing luxury apartments with unnamed Chinese investors and has received loans from an Israeli bank being investigated by the Justice Department for helping rich Americans evade taxes.
If Kushner joins the Trump administration, he will have to file executive branch financial disclosure forms that will reveal more about his holdings. He also will be required to recuse himself from decisions that would have a “direct and predictable effect” on his finances. In addition, Kushner’s lawyer has said that he will divest himself of “substantial assets,” which apparently will include his stake in the building at 666 5th Avenue, his company’s flagship and the subject of the deal with Anbang. But this may largely be cosmetic since the company’s other owners are members of Kushner’s family and the company itself is not going to sell its interest.
All this matters because Kushner may be the single most important influence on Trump. Before the election the Times called Kushner Trump’s “de facto campaign manager,” and a Trump adviser referred to him as “the final decision-maker” in Trump’s inner circle — despite the fact that Kushner had no official title.
Kushner appears to have the power to persuade Trump to reverse significant decisions: After Trump asked Chris Christie to be his running mate, Kushner encouraged him to rescind the offer and choose Mike Pence instead. Then, when Trump surprised the world by winning, Kushner prevailed upon him to fire Christie from his position running the transition and again replace him with Pence.
This shouldn’t be a surprise, since Kushner seems to be a Trump Mini-Me — like his father-in-law born to real estate wealth and not particularly talented at anything, but with a family taste for power and personal vengeance.
Kushner’s successful developer father, Charlie Kushner, gave $2.5 million to Harvard in 1998 when Jared was looking at colleges. Shortly afterward, Harvard admitted him – even though, as an official at Kushner’s high school put it, “His GPA did not warrant it, his SAT scores did not warrant it. We thought for sure, there was no way this was going to happen.” After Harvard, Kushner was admitted to the law school at New York University. Coincidentally, his father had recently given NYU $3 million and rented the school office space at below-market rates.
Kushner’s father also became a major funder of area politicians, giving more than $1.4 million to New Jersey Democrats like Sens. Jon Corzine and Frank Lautenberg and New York Sen. Chuck Schumer. Hillary Clinton came to the Kushner house for dinner after she won her New York Senate seat in 2000.
But in 2005, Charlie Kushner pleaded guilty to tax evasion, witness tampering, and making illegal campaign donations. The witness tampering involved his hiring a prostitute to seduce his brother-in-law and secretly photograph them having sex. The prosecutor in the case? Chris Christie. The fact that Kushner has now whacked Christie twice suggests he has no qualms about using power to settle family grudges.
With his father in jail, Jared Kushner took over the family’s real estate empire. In 2007, soon after Charlie Kushner got out of jail, the family bought 666 5th Avenue for $1.3 billion, mostly borrowed. In 2011, Jared Kushner tried to get one of his family’s creditors to write down some of the debt. The creditors declined. By this time Kushner also owned the New York Observer, a newspaper largely devoted to obsessively chronicling the lifestyles of the richest and most famous Manhattanites. In another unsettling vendetta, Kushner demanded that his reporters smear the creditor; they declined, because what Kushner wanted them to write wasn’t true.
Just like Trump himself, Kushner has been a horrendous landlord, harassing rent-stabilized tenants so he could force them out and jack up the rent on their apartments.
Kushner has also struck up an unusual friendship with Rupert Murdoch, who is 50 years his senior. Murdoch and his then-wife Wendi are apparently responsible for Kushner’s marrying Ivanka Trump in the first place, getting them back together after they’d dated for several years and then broken up.
When Trump played footsie with anti-Semites on Twitter, Kushner, who is Jewish, defended him. One of his employees at the Observer wrote: “Please do not condescend to me and pretend you don’t understand the imagery of a six-sided star when juxtaposed with money and accusations of financial dishonesty. I’m asking you, not as a ‘gotcha’ journalist or as a liberal but as a human being: how do you allow this?”
Top photo: Jared Kushner, the son-in-law of President-elect Donald Trump, enters the lobby of Trump Tower on Nov. 18, 2016 in New York as Trump and his transition team worked on filling cabinet and other high-level positions for the new administration.
So that is what Damien looks like now that he has grown up…
Great article. Thanks for writing this.
The son-in-law also rises. (I know, I know, Louis B. Mayer’s son-in-law)
He seems like a nice boychik.
Thank you, Jon, for this Excellent Article regarding the Kushner’s despicable deeds. It is so disgusting what this Country has turned into. The Intercept is my-go-to for getting honest, accurate, and intensely researched news that We The People need to know. I appreciate all of the hard work that you, and your colleagues, do everyday.
You know, in those glory days that liberals look back on as “Camelot”, the heroic JFK appointed his own brother as Attorney General and I cannot recall anybody ever saying, oh JFK was turning the U.S. into a banana republic. Nor did I hear any such snide comments when President Bill Clinton put his WIFE in charge of his biggest campaign progress, universal health care, which she royally fucked up anyway. I have no problem with the basic content of the article. It’s the attitude. This stinking snide attitude. It’s offensive, and inclines me to dismiss the concerns of the author, rather than join in them. If progressives want genuine independents to take them seriously, they need to ditch this sick attitude, which appears to be borrowed from the corrupt corporate democrats, whole cloth.
If you don’t see the difference, nothing anyone could say is going to change your mind.
Well said. People forget Hillary Clinton was challenged on this and a district court found in Title V of USC : “An officer or employee according to those sections must be: (i) appointed to the civil service; (ii) engaged in the performance of a federal function; and (iii) subject to supervision by a higher elected or appointed official. As the district court held, and as appellees correctly point out, Mrs. Clinton has not been appointed to the civil service. ”
What applies to Clintons applies to Trumps.
I agree with you and was going to ask would it have been more desirable to have had Clinton in the White House and we could basically be subjected to another co-President again? I think a Clinton team was far more dangerous than any son-in-law of Trumps will ever be allowed to be.
Has anyone else noticed that Kushner never looks directly into the camera?
A 36 year old kid, briber of Harvard, and family member is going to be the right hand man of one of the most powerful leaders in the world. What a recipe for disaster.
Rome is collapsing before our eyes.
The process which USA is going through is the same slow motion train wreck which I witnessed in the formative corruption years in Argentina during the 60’s and 70’s under the Peron government. Be assured that America is in a steady decline.
Nice how your yellow journalism is right at home in your banana republic.
Damn, Luke! … We see what you did there! lol not really tho. “Yellow journalism”? C’mon, you mass comm sophomore, no one uses that shit anymore, and if they did, you shouldn’t because you don’t seem to have a great grasp on the definition. Considered the fact that you don’t have to exaggerate the news when the truth is so fucking outrageous? Please get back to those books now son.
But a Prez appointing his brother to be the AG WASN’T a “banana republic” move? Or collecting millions from foreign governments to a “Foundation” that chiefly paid for your travel and entourage while doling out billions in State Dept. funding to the same foreign governments?
Get real. Appointing Kushner is small time compared to the banana republic moves the Dems have made.
Get real.
The law was passed in 1967. It was not illegal in Kennedy’s time.
And no one is defending the Clinton Foundation. Or at least nobody around here.
https://theintercept.com/2016/08/25/why-did-the-saudi-regime-and-other-gulf-tyrannies-donate-millions-to-the-clinton-foundation/
https://theintercept.com/2016/08/26/clinton-foundation-spin/
Should we just amplify and multiply lawbreaking? Like, because this is a banana republic “anyway?”
Okay, I see your point.
Get real.
The law that made this illegal was not passed until several years after JFK’s assassination, and nobody is defending the Clinton Foundation — at least nobody around here.
https://theintercept.com/2016/08/26/clinton-foundation-spin/
https://theintercept.com/2016/08/25/why-did-the-saudi-regime-and-other-gulf-tyrannies-donate-millions-to-the-clinton-foundation/
Should lawlessness multiply and intensify, because we are a banana republic “anyway?”
Please excuse the double post. I was sure the first one never made it.
(Apparently, an 11-month-old tablet is nearly obsolete? Hm.)
Not a professional or wise choice.Allen West would have been my choice.
Hey, Schwartz, what are you views on Buchanan defining the US Congress as “Israel occupied territory”?
Seriously, the slide into abject subservience to a foreign power – which largely defines a banana republic – has started long before Trump. Do you disagree?
Congratulations Trumpsters, nuclear swamp dripping with nepotism achieved. Biggest con in American history, not that fooling idiotic, tribal right wing nutjobs and hacks is even hard to begin with.
I think the point being made here is not that “this is the most corrupt thing anyone in the federal government has ever done” or “Democrats don’t do this sort of thing” but that, as with so many other things, Trump is pushing this sort of behaviour to the edge. Some might like the “honesty” of just saying “Fuck it! I’m only gonna listen to my son in law anyway – why not make it official?” But it also runs the risk of normalising what is the kind of behaviour we’d expect in, say, Argentina, IE counties where any semblance of democracy occasionally just disappears.
https://encrypted.google.com/search?q=banana+republic+without+the+bananas
already happened. not a “new thing”. also: the nepotism ship sailed with bush jr. and the possibility of a 2nd president clinton (or a 3rd bush for that matter). of course i’m totally sure bill clinton would have stayed in harlem to continue receiving treatment for his chronic jungle fever should that have happened.
otherwise the article is fine and makes some decent points but they all fall into the “if not this corrupt yuppie prick then another one” category. kinda like EVERY SINGLE appointment ever. trump was never going to drain the swamp, just rotate the gators and swap out a few leeches for mosquitoes.
I’m hoping that when Ivanka becomes President, she’ll find a way to bring this nepotism under control.
(((Mr. Schwarz))) is such a funny guy… America Will descend as the Huwhites become a minority and the low IQ low impulse control Darkies become a majority the country will resemble Brazil..Lol..Anglo Brazil… the no go New Favelas of Detroit Chicago L.A. Baltimore etc.. welcome home yo… lol
The law is not important. What is important, obviously, is what Citigroup says.
Indeed, it is my understanding that tradition — dating back nearly a decade — dictates that the President’s Cabinet and Senior Advisers are selected not by the President-Elect, but by executives at Citigroup. https://newrepublic.com/article/137798/important-wikileaks-revelation-isnt-hillary-clinton
Thus, assuming that Mr. Kushner has to permission of Citigroup to be a Senior Adviser, I really don’t see how there is any issue.
But of course, for Jon ‘Cognitive Dissonance’ Shwartz, Obama’s hiring of Jeff Immelt as *jobs czar* was not the stuff of banana republics. Even though he was the CEO of GE, received billions in bailouts for GE Capital, and was one of the primary advocates for *job* outsourcing in the 1990s.
What about Obama’s hiring of Penny Pritzker for commerce secretary – Chicago Billionaire (Hyatt), large Obama donor, and TPP fanatic?
I would, take Kushner any day of the week over these two ruling class stooges that Obama appointed to serve the ruling class.
Apparently for Jon, Banana republics can only emerge if the current President has an ‘R’ by their name. All other considerations have gone out the window.
Would love to hear your thoughts on the Trump’s proposed cabinet, which by some accounts is slated to be the richest in history.
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/donald-trump-cabinet-richest-in-us-history-historians-say/
I agree with both comments: white house officials are all the same: high heels vs low heels.
But the headline above this article makes it want to look like that Trump’s cabinet is very very different as compared for instance Obama. And that, of course, is biased reporting.
I’ll raise you one: O’Bomba first chief of staff was Rahm Emanuel, an Israeli citizen who served in Israel’s but never in United State’s army.
http://www.intifada-palestine.com/2010/05/white-house-chief-of-staff-rahm-emanuel-acknowledges-he-served-in-the-israeli-army/
on the day Emanuel introduced Obama at AIPAC and then went with him for an off-the-record meeting with the Board of Directors, another NBC journalist said on air that Emanuel had served in the Israeli Army. This time Rahm was right there, listening to every word, and not only did he not deny it but he can actually be seen nodding his head ‘yes’. Furthermore the journalist involved was not just an ordinary journalist, but none other than NBC’s Chief Foreign Affairs correspondent, Andrea Mitchell, herself very well-connected in Washington, very Jewish and Zionist, and married to none other than Alan Greenspan.
We KNOW Dems are in DENIAL over an historic massive loss of their annointed party leaders, the Obama radical legacy, not to mention all power … but seriously, Kushner is obviously a genius he – with zero political experience – just DEFEATED 1.5 billion most funded campaign in world history with the 2 most powerful 3 decade Dems in U.S. history and he’s um not smart enough to get into Harvard? Really? FTR, KILLARY was “on staff” leading the push for health care reform WHILE her husband was in office – again, get serious!
Nice role model, tax evader, jury tamperer, criminal for a father. Figure the rest out yourself while u r getting your willies.
Kushner, like Trump, is a trust-fund baby with palms of wet marshmallow. The election was won by Putin, Rush Limbaugh, and the cowardly and disgusting practice of redistricting. Babies like Trump and Kushner like to tell people they’re “builders” when in fact neither could find the striking side of a hammer. He’s not a genius. He’s filthy rich, and you’re tragically deceived.
You can’t use your disgust with HRC as a boogeyman to cover up Trump’s deficiencies forever… At some point you have to come to terms with the fact that many of his decisions are at best fundamentally flawed and at worst a bald-faced attempt to subvert the protections our democracy needs.
Whether or not it was done before (note I’m not agreeing with you here, I fail to see how a First-Lady’s pet project, which like it or not has some precedence and was presumably taken without pay) does not excuse what is happening now or somehow justify the insane scale to which it is being done now. In that sense, we’re all like frogs in boiling water: I for one have gotten to the point where I sense danger and am ready to jump out, though it seems like you are content with being dinner.
Kushner was smart enough to see that the game was chess even though Her Royal Highness and her team were playing checkers. A checkers win would give one the popular vote, a chess win The White House.
Kushner found and hired the tech whiz who managed to figure out exactly where Trump should be campaigning to win the electoral college, and the rest is history:
http://insider.foxnews.com/2016/11/15/donald-trumps-digital-guru-explains-how-they-won-election
This is how “the media pollsters/pundits” got it all so wrong. They were monitoring the checkers game Clinton was playing and “winning” while Trump and his team took the castle.
“Taking the castle” isn’t really close to a victory in chess…. metaphor is flawed
Trump bought the genius that gamed the game but he is still Donald J. Trump who is totally unqulified to be a mayor of Detroit city never mind President of USA!
I just hope we survive as a unified country his four years of presidency!
Announcing the newest corporate merger: Trump Inc with Whitehouse Inc.
Good post!
Government is already a family business, Bushes, Clintons and many others have and are getting power and riches. The MSM, many politicians, courts and citizens that commented sedition or turned their back on it will be watching this “unpopular” administration like a hawk. Trump, associates to include Kushner had best keep this in mind. This belated due diligence will help revive Constitutional law and the rule of law in a way that bleeds into the next “popular” administration. This is why many swing voters voted for Trump despite the acknowledged risk.
Please gentlemen. Explain whom the 500+B., to repeal ObamaCare will befall. You? I? Or is that another B.S. excuse that Kushner will blame on Hillary ?While he plays devils advocate for Daddy Trump.
I have yet to hear a valid solution that does not destroy any or all of the infrastructures that help the impoverished society of Americans who without a doubt are the silent majority, that was never meant to depend upon Social Services as Medicaid or a food program that is barley enough to feed Donny boys guard dogs. Yet, they remain greatful with their $100k , 8x 10, framed piece of paper….reminding them that their MBA earned them $7.75 an hour to take away from the 80yr old Social Security Dependent, War Veterans extra income to pay for Kushner and Trumpys Phamicutical
I wonder if Mr Schwarz had an issue with Hillary Clinton being tasked with overhauling the US healthcare system? As long as they don’t pay Mr Kushner I don’t see an issue. If he gets a salary that is another matter.
There is a fundamental difference between the first lady taking an interest in a particular piece of policy and trump looking to create offices of the first daughter and first son in law as just vauge council.
That being said the realist in me say that trump has proven himself to be such an incoherent mess when left to his own devices that I suppose having those two to hold his hand in the situation room is the best outcome we can expect.
At least they may actually understand the nature of whatever problem is on the table as I sincerely doubt trumps ability to absorb and retain facts
Nonsense. Here is how the NYT described Hillary’s role: “the wife of the President is serving as his top official adviser on the future of health care in America.”
In fact, in opposing a lawsuit seeking disclosure of the Committee’s activities , the DOJ argued that, with respect to health care, “the First Lady is really the functional equivalent of a Government employee.” http://www.nytimes.com/1993/03/06/us/hillary-clinton-s-health-role-disputed.html
Malice driven by sociopathic intention. I am not afraid of this imposter of Presidential claim. I feel pity for his lack of human empathy. What kind of father raised this Manic? Would he be proud of his son?
Who knows… he seems competent and Ivanka could keep the volcano from blowing.
Yes, he’s a princeling, butever country has it’s elite.
America is already well on it’s way to becoming a banana republic. You wanna know which one??…Brazil..Anglo Brazil…Lol.. welcome to the New favelas of Chicago Baltimore etc.
Yes, he’s a princeling. But it seems a rather talented one.
Every country (sadly) has it’s elite. Ivanka seems like a sane person and can help keep the volcano from blowing.
Who knows… could be competent. Maybe no so bad choice.
After the U.S. has exploited, invaded, de-stabilized, and obliterated so many countries delivering it’s “version of democracy” why do I get the feeling a Trump presidency is some form of Karmic justice?
Michael Enright puts it quite well in his opening monologue of this week’s broadcast:
http://www.cbc.ca/radio/thesundayedition/america-s-hypocritical-outrage-over-russia-s-cyber-interference-in-its-presidential-election-michael-s-essay-1.3925384?autoplay=true
PS, the definition of ‘hypocrisy’ – conveniently forgetting your faults to point out someone else’s – he mentions is a thing of beauty.
Priceless. Tnx for the link.
a sort of not so divine karmedy…
YOUR ABSOLUTELY CORRECT……lol……..We voted George Bush jr and got WMDs and lies,and a HUGE WAR and A HUGE FINANCIAL BUST,,,,,you would think that the country would never put another Republican in the WH,,,,,,well here we go again,,,good part of being old is I will notbe around to see our demise.
Obama was just Bush-lite, why many who voted for him twice, voted Trump.
That’s right there is something to be said about getting old, it means that we lived through it and remember history. Now where did you say they found WMD’s? We know there were no WMD’s in Iraq and that was proven after daddy Bush went in. Iraq was unfinished business for the US. However bad Pukes are in office, never forget that it was Jimmy Carter that started rebuilding the RDF and reinstated selective service. He wasn’t as dumb as some thought, and he wasn’t as clean as others thought.
So my question is why do people keeping choosing two corrupt parties instead of a democracy and let our 3rd parties into the election? Main reason is that if Americans ever saw how a LEGITIMATE government truly ran, they would never elect a R or D. We are still today in a continuation of a 25 year war. Our empire will be destroyed, it is already happening by those entrusted to keep it safe, sadly. An empire cannot stand, that is why all the world’s eyes are upon us.
A writer takes apart a different piece with the same basic meme. His beef? The rot was happening long before Trump became the Republican candidate, and is bipartisan in nature.
http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2017/01/america-stan-long-trump-170106115025029.html
Hillary was Slick Willy’s “advisor” as soon as he slid on in. Seemed like nepotism then too, but very few seemed to complain. Hell, she “crafted” bills for him, and gave her sterling imprimatur to obliterating “welfare as we know it”, bombing the hell out of former Yugoslavia, (see e.g. Johnstone’s “Queen of Chaos”) and her joyful assent to the “it was worth it” murder of 1.5 million Iraqis under the gorgon Albright. Why balk at a callow baby billionaire/statesman-in-training receiving some on the job tips from an acknowledged expert…
A dynasty has got to start somewhere.
Good.
Just as the NDA spy on all Americans. DT has his family in the mix, keeping an eye on the nods and winks and having an ear for the scuttlebutt. Having this source-worthy genuine inside info, DT will be able to compare the real deal with the fake reports issued by the great pretenders. And what about Trumps next reality show? Trumps at the White House – the real All in the Family, fantastic transparency, and real time information we cant get from msm. I’m a fan already.
Never in my wildest delusions would I have ever said this: Mitt Romney was right. TRUMP IS A FRAUD. I almost feel sorry for Ted Cruz. The only corrupt Goldman pos not in Trumps cabinet.
All the confirmation hearings just got started today and if Cory Booker and others have their way Jeff Sessions will be deep-sixed.
Poor Sessions was excoriated by an MTV host for bringing his Asian grandchildren to the hearing as “props”. “Where did he pick them up? Toys R Us?”
Give the Democrats time. They will torpedo enough of Trump’s choices (especially Tillerson) that Trump may have to turn to Cruz just to get someone….ANYONE…confirmed!
And Cruz would be a shoo-in for confirmation. The Senate would do anything to get rid of “Green Eggs and Ham” Cruz!
Could not have characterized it better. Kushner pushed Christie out for busting is perv, tax evading father. The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. Kushners taking dirty Israeli money for projects for years. Make no mistake who calls the shots in Trump’s WH: Kushner/Ivanka, Cohn, Mnuchin. This is turning out to be the biggest con job ever perpetrated on the American people.
You were doing great, right up until the last paragraph. That moronic “anti-Semitic” story about the six sided star was the precise sort of idiocy that lost Hillary the election tactically. I mean, have you ever tried to put three lines of text inside a FIVE pointed star? An eight sided star doesn’t work either, unless it’s a stop sign, which has its own meaning. And a four sided star is, well, a box full of text.
But all that pales compares to the temerity of trying to argue that Trump is anti-Semitic at the same time you say he’s showing blatant nepotism to a relative who is Jewish who controls his crucial decisions! Wwaaaaaaaaaat?
The only identity politics here is the push on all sides to make the presidency a heritable asset, passed down from father to son, husband to wife, princeling to cousin. No doubt eventually someone will suggest the rational reform of simply issuing stock in the office to be traded on the open market, at least until one company owns 51% or more.
“But all that pales compares to the temerity of trying to argue that Trump is anti-Semitic at the same time you say he’s showing blatant nepotism to a relative who is Jewish who controls his crucial decisions! Wwaaaaaaaaaat?”
Making his (convert Jewish) daughter (not his sons) the most senior manager of his companies likewise proves he’s a deplorable sexist. And, of course, the fact that he completely pays attention to whatever she has to say. And has a female campaign manager who plainly has the power and permission to disagree and tell him “no”. The sickening list of misogynist evidence goes on and on.
You obviously just don’t grasp the enormous subtlety of faultless leftist reasoning. :)
“He can’t be sexist. He hired his daughter.”
And he wasn’t making fun of the reporter either, right? You’re argument about the star is almost as funny as the people who defend trumps imitating the reporter.
Dillusional.
I don’t see anything about that in the last paragraph – and I said he was doing great right up until then.
I’m not here to be on a side – frequently I don’t know which way I’ll come down until I get to the end. Not even Hillary’s people really give a damn about us; they’re all people more important than us who buy and sell us like bid lots of eyeballs on social media. But whenever we reserve the right to make up our own mind for ourselves, issue by issue, paragraph by paragraph, sentence by sentence, we commit a strong arm robbery against the Powers That Be and STEAL our minds back from those who consider them their property. We don’t get a say in policy – @Doug Salzmann cued me in on a VERY provocative study at https://scholar.princeton.edu/sites/default/files/mgilens/files/gilens_and_page_2014_-testing_theories_of_american_politics.doc.pdf which I encourage all to read. But we might Robin Hood our minds out of the grasp of those who tell us we gotta be with either the crooks or the pushovers.
This was a poor piece. Outside of Greenwald The Intercept is losing its shine :(
When all 17 “Intellegence ” agencies “believe” in the same idea that 90% of the media owned by 5 or 6 corporations are “advertising” that all 17 intelligence agencies agree..Now that’s another symptom of a banana republic..
5 corporations also control the privatization of the “intelligence industry”
https://www.thenation.com/article/five-corporations-now-dominate-our-privatized-intelligence-industry/
The whole meme about the Russians ‘hacking the election’ starts with the assumption that the American population (particularly the minority who votes) are easily manipulated.
Sadly, the polling data shows that they are (not just the polling data about this particular meme, see the ones that can be easily proven false from publicly available evidence) and, what is worse, does anyone believe that if someone were to make the statement blatantly, rather than hide it under a meme that allows them to avoid responsibility for what they did, elect Trump to the Presidency under rules they could have rewritten at any time, they’d froth at the mouth denying what they have to accept as true to buy into this meme.
I know no safe depository of the ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves; and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise their control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them, but to inform their discretion by education. This is the true corrective of abuses of constitutional power.
—Thomas Jefferson, letter to William
Charles Jarvis, September 28, 1820
you’re reading it backwards. the agencies placed the ads
Shush! You!!
More lead in the water supplies, please. Those pesky peons are still able to reason!!
U.S. becomes Banana Republic as John F. Kennedy hires brother Robert Kennedy to be his Atty. General.
It’s different with the Kennedys, of course. Hallowed ground, etc.
BTW, did any of the Kennedy boys show their tax returns or divest themselves of all their assets into blind trusts while in public office?
I don’t actually recall that, but surely they must have done since it’s apparently a litmus test of political probity.
one didn’t file tax returns for bootlegging lucre, which comes in with a pH of about 14…
Two Kennedy brothers in the administration is the reason that anti nepotism law was passed in 1967.
Noooo… thay it ain’t tho.
Cuz after 2 Bushes, Clinton putting his wife,an intersectionally corrupt felon and war criminal in the white house would be just wonderful (cuz there’s no way she’d be anywhere near it without him, woo feminism). Get a grip. Liberal democracy was just a series of compromises by the propertied class against the threat of far-leftist violent overthrow. There is no such real far left and no such threat anymore. Therefore, though there is a lag, Liberal Democracy is walking dead. Good luck kiddies
“Hillary Clinton Helped Pave Way for Jared Kushner In the White House
A D.C. circuit court decision allowed Clinton to work on health care in her husband’s administration. Now experts say that the same decision may apply to Trump’s son-in-law.”
From the Daily Beast
“In 1967, then President Lyndon B. Johnson signed an anti-nepotism bill into law that was widely seen as a reaction to his disapproval of the appointment of Robert Kennedy in John F. Kennedy’s previous administration. The law became an issue once again in 1993 when two federal appeals court judges in Washington, D.C., ruled that the law did not apply to White House staff.”
I came here following Glenn Greenwalds, hoping that this would be a place for objective journalism. That it wasn’t happening became clear some time ago. This “US is a banana republic because the other side won elections” piece is a new low.
So, what, exactly, is incorrect in this article?
Lets see here: 35 yr old son in law with no government experience, running real estate company financed with dirty money joins father in law with real estate company financed with dirty money con man. Only thing missing is perv Teddy K in his underwear hitting on young women in Palm Beach……. oh wait, we have that too.
Kim Jon il and Kim Jon un American style.
How would ANYONE take these clowns seriously in ANY negotiation? Money laundering, tax evading, con men
Oops. Looks like the beginning of an infinite blockquote regression.
Stop me before I type another opening tag!
Actually the US has been a Banana Republic for a very long time.
When your arms export became your economy (just try to shut that down and see what happens to the dollar) you became exactly that.
As for being run by despots, oligarchs and generational nepotism, yes. For the last 45 years at the very least with only one single 4 year break in the late 70’s.
Exactly — arms export , pharma and porn– top three industries. Speaks volumes.
Bobby Kennedy?
I wonder if the anti nepotism law created in nineteen hundred and sixty seven had anything to do with that? I wonder…..
Draining the swamp … to make room for New York sewage.
Read up on Scott Rothstein/Trump/ Huberfeld/Nordlicht. Money laundering Ponzis for Perv tax evader Kushner et al. Not to mention Kushners lil bro and Blankfeins kid roomates at Harvid. This is corrupt nepotism that would make Putin proud. Can you be impeached before being sworn in?
Really? Is this the best report The Intercept can produce on this story?
Strike one: “Saddam Hussein’s son-in-law was perhaps his top deputy and supervised his WMD programs during the 1980s.” Yes but, “He defected to Jordan and assisted United Nations Special Commission (UNSCOM) and International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspection teams assigned to look for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hussein_Kamel_al-Majid).” Not exactly an example of the sterling reliability of sons in law.
Strike two: “Kushner could of course sell all his assets and put the proceeds in a blind trust, but as with Trump the law does not require it.” Misleading. “The law requires Kushner to take more significant steps to detangle his business interests than Trump, given that conflict of interest laws largely do not apply to the president.” (http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2017/01/09/trump_son-in-law_kushner_to_take_senior_white_house_role_132746.html)
Strike three: Weasel words, ergo: “But this may largely be…” “Kushner may be…” “Kushner appears to have…”
This story bears watching, as “nepotism” is a word for a reason. But on the occasion of your first at-bat, you struck out.
In the 0Bama white house, Valerie Jarrett appeared to be a bad influence per her Iranian connections.
Jared Kushner appears to be a bad influence per his Israeli connections.
Trump is not draining the swamp or acting like a real America Firster.
Does Trump have ears?
You might mention that Jared Kushner graduated cum laude from Harvard College (though this was probably also paid for, right?), just so that this doesn’t come off as a mean-spirited smear piece.
And kicking out loudmouthed blowhard Chris Christie in favor of button-down, religious darling Pence can only be attributed to the vendetta, right? It wouldn’t have been a skillful attempt to curry favor with the right and give Trump’s campaign a shot of stability when Christie was dealing with Bridge-gate.
Also, what ever happened to Dana Schwartz, that employee of his that wrote the open letter to Kushner about defending his father-in-law as not being an anti-Semite? I assume she was immediately canned, right? No? Hmm. He must be waiting for her to become his father’s advisor so he can replace her. That’ll learn her!
Untold Story: How Donald Trump Really Won?
75 percent of America’s high-poverty neighborhoods in 1970 still classified that way four decades later. Racial and class inequality is very much alive, “progressive politics” apartheid. Blacks have voted Democratic for almost 50 years are now being driven from their neighborhoods that have been their home for generations. We gave the Democratic Party our votes and they “took us for granted” leaving us living with social tension, unrest, and the worst GUN VIOLENCE AND VIOLENT CRIME . . . A diminished hope and no opportunities while the Democratic Party’s upscale hipster real estate speculators prosper.
President-Elect Donald Trump wants to enable states with dedicated grants and implementation standards related to diversity, inclusion, and targeted hiring the resources necessary to spur investment in underserved black neighborhoods. Stopping gun violence, revitalizing education, creating jobs, replacing substandard housing, and strengthening black families is a mandate we secured for him.
That is, Mr. Trump owes his victory to “predominately black Democratic strongholds” who were convinced to give him more votes than the previous Republican candidates. African Americans convinced hundreds of thousands blacks to “boycott” the vote and/or voting “straight” Democrat. All across America the black vote “boycott” masterminded by Todd Elliott Koger effectuated an insurmountable obstruction for Hillary Clinton and the Democrats. There is correspondence to the Trump campaign that outlined “Koger’s Plan.” There was a “Thank you for the suggestion” reply. And, President-Elect Donald Trump’s verbatim use of Mr. Koger’s exact same words during “online videos” and speeches that followed in Michigan, Milwaukee (Wisconsin) and Pennsylvania.
Todd Elliott Koger’s writings at one point specifically advised that the “Koger Plan” to target the black vote will changed the destructive conversation and slip in the polls that the “verbal fight” with Khizr Khan, a slain U.S. soldier’s father had caused in late August 2016.
When the Trump campaign started to collapse in October 2016, and everyone started to run away . . . Mr. Koger suggested the “need for a new writing” to change the conversation again. He suggested that the campaign needed to move away from the “hot mic incident.” Todd Elliott Koger’s correspondence suggested a “Treaty with Black America.” There’s another “thank you” from the campaign. And, Mr. Trump almost immediately announced a “Contract with the American Voter” and a “New Deal for Black America.”
Maybe this is just a remarkable concurrence of events. Maybe Mr. Koger’s packaging of Mr. Trump’s visual optics and his efforts to communicate implementation of the ” Koger Plan” had no apparent connection. Maybe it was just “serendipity” in North and West Philadelphia (Eastern Pennsylvania) and Penn Hills, Allegheny County (Western Pennsylvania) where turnout fell 10 percent in the majority-black wards. Happenstance in Milwaukee, Wisconsin (District 15), where turnout was down 19.5 percent. Apparent “fluke” in Detroit, Wayne County, Michigan, where 75,000 “Motown Voters” decided to stay home. One thing for sure, Todd Elliott Koger’s correspondence kept reiterating that “Mr. Trump’s only path to victory” was the “black vote.” Cities like Boston, Massachusetts’ “predominately black” wards had their greatest decline in voter turnout this century. And, just 50,000 votes in three states, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin (the focus of “Koger’s Plan”) decided the election.
The “PLAN” was conceived: Convince hundreds of thousands blacks to “boycott” the vote and/or voting “straight” Democrat.
The “STRATEGY” was organized: Find every conceivable email address, mailing lists, newsgroup, on-line discussion, black organization, local activists, and the like, and send them an endless repetition of talking points.
Mr. Koger’s “MESSAGE”: 50 Years of failed Democratic inner cities.
There is available representative correspondence (sent to the Trump campaign and others) that demonstrates well how the “electoral college victory” was propelled. That is, Todd Elliott Koger’s suggested “THEMES” (We Must Come Together) and persuasive point-helping support is now documented with dates to prove the actual source of things (something no other person has been able to articulate about the black vote in 2016).
The National Diversity Coalition for Trump did finally send a “Thank You.” But interestingly, Todd Elliott Koger and his wife don’t even have tickets for the Trump inauguration, its events, nor any job offers . . . .
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dieNd5h_qpw
Bill Clinton making Hillary de-facto cabinet member in 1993-94, won judgment that presidency is not a US agency. After Trump puts two or more on the SCOTUS bench he will push anything he likes.
But no. It is not a Banana Republic, it is an Emporium of Delusion run by Trump dynasty and empress Ivanka.
all that will replace Emporium of Delusion run by Obama and Clinton dynasty.
As they say, reality left the W.H., capitol building and the country.
Are we lost in a human wilderness of pain and mental sedation? Have all our children gone insane waiting for a summer rain?
Not yet.
When you can’t even trust the secret service anymore it isn’t nepotism or anything like it. You have to surround yourself with people who you can trust and rely on to tell you the truth. Obama on the other hand is surrounded by degenerate liars, cheats, thieves and murderers of the lowest order.
He certainly seems to be a well-scrubbed lad, but he’s likely a half-bright lunatic as well. Not good. I’m looking forward to the scandals . . . .
I doubt it, on all counts. As long as he isn’t placed in a formal, paid position, Kushner can probably participate in any way Trump desires.
The president can consult pretty much anyone he chooses, on any matter he chooses, and can, likewise, grant security clearances to whomever he chooses, bypassing or overriding any and all standard operating procedures, recommendations, objections, etc.
Nailing Trump himself, on the Emoluments Clause, has a much better chance of success.
Well it looks like kushner is being given a formal and presumably paid position. But true that the idea that he might somehow be legally forced outside of the sphere of influence is ludicrous.
Nope. Already announced that he won’t accept a salary. And I don’t think “Senior Advisor to the President” necessarily falls into any defined, office or job description that any challengers could nail Kushner into.
I’d be very surprised if they don’t get away with doing exactly what they want to.
perhaps he should be allowed in, but required to wear CIA-grade sound-blocking earmuffs, a blindfold, and a gag, at all times
You’re likely too young to know about the ‘Get Smart’ series ‘cone of silence’ gag for when they wanted to pass information under the highest of security , but you should check it out.
can “grant security clearances to whomever he chooses”
No, he cannot. Security clearances are not presidential privileges and require FBI background checks to assure the person receiving them is kosher.
The president, of course, is not vetted for security clearance.
“Security clearances are not presidential privileges”
There is past history of a President granting a security clearance to a civilian.
Kennedy did it for a former Manhattan Project physicist regarding Soviet satellite capability.
There is past history of a president appointing his brother as AG. That doesn’t mean it will be repeated in the modern era. And FDR was sort of a special case, what with setting up concentration camps and all…also not likely to be repeated.
Sorry, the last line was left out:
If FDR had someone on the Manhattan Project, he would have surely had a clearance at that time so Kennedy’s action wasn’t really a new grant of clearance.
The granting of security clearance absolutely is a presidential prerogative. I have a pile of references, but here’s a recent NY Times story that explains it in simple and straightforward terms:
Emphasis added.
I’ll stand by my original statement that no one gets appointed without an FBI background check. I grant the President can override recommendations of any executive branch, of course.
So essentially you were wrong about the meat of it but are hedging your mis-statement on the technicalities even though the outcome is exactly what you denied was possible. Got it.
and CIA lawyers are likely to argue that only the Agency is an agency…
hopefully both sides will implode, violently.
If the CIA can survive the oxymoron of their name (the Intelligence part of it) I’m afraid your hopes would be dashed whether the outcome of that clash resulted in a singularity (black hole) or a matter/anti-matter reaction (big bang)
The law was created for a branch of Government that has but one elected official, the President. The appointment of Kushner is an exercise in transparency not unethical. Kushner was going to fill this position whether nature of the role de jure or defacto. In this situation Kushner will make divesting of conflicting assets and undergo a Top Secret background check, all positive things you would never receive from a leftist.
I’ve always thought that people’s partners reflect who they are. I also thought that Ivanka had a sliver of un-Trumpiness, but this characterisation of Kushner makes me think she settled for the worst (viz. money).
Also, given Trump’s explicit fantasising about her, the vibes I get from Ivanka marrying someone with so many core similarities to her father is…ugh, that whole family is vom town.
Does Jared’s mother know he’s out…?
Err… this example is a bit flawed. It’d be better to call it “nepotism” or “dynastic politics” but that, gosh, would also include the Bush family – Prescott, Poppy, and Shrub – as well as the Bill and then Hillary Clinton. And the Kennedys.
A banana republic is more like what we’ve already had for quite some time now, certainly since the 2008 economic crash and bailout (see wiki):
In this analogy, “investment banking and financial services” are probably our banana. We certainly have the wealth stratification and the impoverished working class to go along with it, but let’s be honest, Bill Clinton, GW Bush and Barak Obama have all promoted this state of affairs, from the Glass-Steagall repeal (Clinton) to the subprime mortgage fraud (Bush) to the massive bailout of Wall Street and the collapse in homeownership rates (Obama), it’s all been heading in the same direction.
No, I don’t expect Trump to reverse this trend, either. Rather I’m expecting some truly mind-boggling corruption scandals related to his “public-private” infrastructure plans – that’ll be a juicy topic for any journalists in the Trump era, hint hint. Look up “HUD 1980s Reagan scandals” for a primer. Or “Iraq reconstruction contracts Cheney Halliburton”.
Were we a banana republic when John Kennedy named his brother as Attorney General? Just curious. ;)
Considering the anti-nepotism law was instutited as a direct answer to Kennedy naming his brother as Attorney General, I would say the banana republic terminology was yet to come ;)
When was Kennedy POTUS? When was anti-nepotism law instituted? Wow!!!
The Law came into effect in 1967, not 1961 when JFK took office.
Laws changed right after (and because of) that: https://concurringopinions.com/archives/2012/06/nepotism-and-the-cabinet.html
The boy is not going to be AG
There are lots of reasons to oppose Trump; this isn’t one of them. John Adams and John Quincy Adams, along with JFK and Bobby Kennedy, did the same. And yet we were not like Mussolini or a banana republic.
Did you miss this part of the article?
“A 1967 anti-nepotism law states that a government official can’t hire relatives “in the agency in which he is serving or over which he exercises jurisdiction or control.”
True about the Kennedys’, however, “A 1967 anti-nepotism law…”
Then what about Bill appointing Hillary to the Health Care Commission back in 1993, or Barack appointing Michelle to the White House Task Force on Childhood Obesity and the Let Girls Learn initiative? I don’t seem to recall any complaints about how these appointments made us a banana republic, that we were like Saddam Hussein or that we were like Benito Mussolini back then. It seems outsized rhetoric is only for some.
Again, I don’t like Trump. But let’s get real about the reasons to oppose him. And let’s ditch the silly rhetoric that clearly doesn’t apply to this case.
Kushner is probably going to be the most powerful adviser in the White House. That’s significantly different from being on the Task Force on Childhood Obesity.
Interesting that you do not address the Clintons. Now, why would that be? Listen, I think Trump is a scumbag too but at least attack him for legitimate reasons!
How is it? You are saying Trump is violating the letter of the law… law does not care about scale. If is wrong for eh goose, it is wrong for the gander.
Different in scale perhaps, but in each case the same law would seem to apply (as it would also apply if the relative was appointed to janitorial or lawn-raking duty). Or at least should apply if one wants to be consistent.
Hillary was the chief force behind Bill waging NATO war in former Yugoslavia,
She “crafted” their Health Denial Bill, and was a huge part of the Obliterating The Safety Net As We Knew It Bill, as well as a key to their school-to-prison pipeline (perhaps the first in her long pipeline of support for pipelines…) and their Effective Death Penalty. Hardly a goddamned fly on the wall.
If you’re going to come down and mix with the commoners, you should at least bring a decent argument.
You cannot excuse one violation based on an undefinable scale of “powerful adviser = bad” and “Task Force on Childhood Obesity = significantly different.”
Bill Clinton gave Hillary (who had zero subject-matter knowledge) primary responsibility to reengineer 15% of the US economy: appointing her Chair of the Health Care Commission.
On a JS-scale of “powerful adviser” to “Task Force on Childhood Obesity,” I think it’s clear that Chair of the Health Care Commission falls closer to the former.
In the cases you cite, these weren’t paid positions so the law doesn’t apply. If Kushner is offered and accepts a paid position, they’re breaking the line.
A healthcare commission with no power to enact anything! And a taskforce on childhood obesity you say! What potential abuses of power abounded there!
False equivalency 101.
…because of the Kennedys. :)
“Benito Mussolini’s son-in-law served as his foreign minister (until Mussolini had him executed).”
So we have that to look forward to …
AND the demise of El Duce himself, and that of Vidkun Quisling, who invited Nazi Germany into Norway. I think the same of the Conservative Party of Canada and their minions.
you think perhaps Trudeau will invite the US into Canada?
I think many Canadians share a somewhat desperate hope that Trump will prioritize the North Wall.
Yup we do. “You made your bed, now lie in it”
“Banana republic”? And all you can come up with is three examples, one of which (Cuba) is totally irrelevant? (because neither Raul Castro nor his son in law own anything beyond their homes and maybe a car).