The
entire deal was egregious enough that Democrats have already begun calling for
formal investigations into the affair. As Sen. Elizabeth Warren said earlier this week, the Department of
Justice “should take a really hard look” at the contours of the deal. She’s not
wrong: Kushner’s effectively selling political access, rather than financial
acumen, to a foreign dictatorship, all in broad daylight. While no
investigation has yet opened, the deal should, at the very least, add momentum to calls for
increased
anti-money laundering oversight for private equity funds—which have enjoyed a
two-decade exemption from even basic due diligence checks on funds.
There
is, however, a catch. Kushner’s actions don’t exist in a vacuum. If anything,
he’s just following a playbook laid out by other, more subtle
influence-peddling operations that came before him—of other operations that
sold political access to the highest bidders, regardless of the source of their
wealth. “It’s fun and appropriate to mock Jared, but we shouldn’t lose sight of
the real problem: this kind of profiteering by former (and possibly future)
officials is seen as totally acceptable in DC,” Matt Duss, foreign policy
adviser to Sen. Bernie Sanders, tweeted. “As usual, the main difference
is that the Trump crew is just more shameless about it.”
Kushner
may be the most flagrant about these cash-for-influence schemes, but he’s
hardly the most prominent. For instance, former Republican…
