Kushner Company Got Huge Loans After WH Meetings

The New York Times reports:

Early last year, a private equity billionaire started paying regular visits to the White House. Joshua Harris, a founder of Apollo Global Management, was advising Trump administration officials on infrastructure policy. During that period, he met on multiple occasions with Jared Kushner, President Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser, said three people familiar with the meetings. Among other things, the two men discussed a possible White House job for Mr. Harris.

The job never materialized, but in November, Apollo lent $184 million to Mr. Kushner’s family real estate firm, Kushner Companies. The loan was to refinance the mortgage on a Chicago skyscraper. Even by the standards of Apollo, one of the world’s largest private equity firms, the previously unreported transaction with the Kushners was a big deal: It was triple the size of the average property loan made by Apollo’s real estate lending arm, securities filings show.

Mediaite reports:

Rachel Maddow threw out much of her scheduled program at the 11th hour Wednesday night when news broke that Jared Kushner met with businessmen whose companies later gave sizeable loans to his business, Kushner Companies. Maddow brought in The New York Times‘ Jesse Drucker, one of the co-authors of the report, to help her break down the story.

“We have no indication that they discussed the loans, but… the issue ethics experts would raise is you have a potential issue even if he doesn’t raise the loan,” Drucker said. “Jared Kushner is one of the most powerful people in the world right now. We know that he discussed a job, a White House job, with [CEO of private equity firm Apollo] Joshua Harris. And that, on its own, raises concerns about the subsequent financial transactions between Kushner Companies and Apollo.

Hit the first link for the usual denials.