President-elect Donald Trump tapped his son-in-law Jared Kushner’s dad, Charles Kushner, as the incoming ambassador to France on Saturday—a key role in managing the fraught relationship between Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron.
Kushner, an infamous figure in New Jersey, is a wealthy real estate executive who was convicted and imprisoned in 2005 after pleading guilty to 16 federal counts of filing false tax returns, one count of making false statements to the Federal Election Commission, and one count of retaliating against a cooperating witness and was later pardoned by Trump in the final days of his first term.
“He is a tremendous business leader, philanthropist, & dealmaker, who will be a strong advocate representing our Country & its interests,” Trump wrote on Truth Social, his social media site. “Together, we will strengthen America’s partnership with France, our oldest Ally, & one of our greatest!”
Kushner, 70, had a firm hold in real estate by the early 2000s before running into legal troubles and pleading guilty in 2004. As a part of his plea at the time, he admitted to targeting his brother-in-law, William Schulder, a former employee turned witness for federal prosecutors in their case against the elder Kushner. The plot included Kushner hiring a sex worker to lure Schulder into a motel room, have sex with him, and film it on a hidden camera. That tape would later be sent to Schulder’s wife, Kushner’s sister, as an intimidation stunt.
Alas, Kushner’s scheme didn’t end up working and he was sentenced to two years in prison, but was released earlier in 2006.
He found vindication, though, with Trump’s pardon over a decade later.
Trump granted Kushner clemency “as part of a wave of 26 pardons he issued with roughly a month left in his first term, along with other close associates including Paul Manafort, his 2016 campaign chairman, and Roger J. Stone Jr., a longtime ally and informal adviser,” the New York Times reports in their Saturday write-up of Trump’s pick. Both Jared and Charles Kushner, according to reporting from the Times, played a key role in who Trump considered clemency for.
Prosecuting Kushner’s initial case was no other than Chris Christie, the former New Jersey governor who was then a US attorney. Christie—who has become a vocal critic of Trump—recalled Kushner’s misconduct as “one of the most loathsome, disgusting crimes that I prosecuted…and I was the U.S. attorney in New Jersey” during a 2019 interview with PBS.
