What about Jared?

For a few years now, the Republicans have had an obsession with Hunter Biden. He’s accused of leveraging his relationship with his father to put together shady business deals in which they either took bribes or made big money. Thus far, their endless investigations have come up empty handed.

In an effort to shake something loose that might justify impeaching President Biden, the GOP has become increasingly desperate. Hunter’s struggles with addiction have been mocked. In several hearings, pictures of him in compromising positions have been publicly shown, for no other reason than to humiliate him. This faux outrage over Hunter’s alleged “deals” is especially galling when a prime example of influence peddling can be found in Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner. Unsurprisingly, the GOP refuses to address this.

During his time as an “advisor” in the White House, Kushner took full advantage of both the power of the office and the intelligence at his fingertips. He was repeatedly denied a security clearance because of his risky financial situation; Trump overruled the decision. From then on, Kushner took special interest in the daily classified briefings and intelligence given to the president. Trump was famously uninterested, but it was noted that Jared devoured it, even asking for access to many other sensitive documents.

After being put in charge of issues in the mid-east, he became close friends with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman (MBS). In 2017, he allegedly provided MBS with a list, reportedly telling the prince, “Here are your enemies.” Days later, the prince had those people rounded up, tortured and worse; he then allegedly bragged that he had Kushner “in his pocket.” That relationship appeared to be why there was no White House rebuke despite global outrage for MBS’ gruesome 2018 murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

Kushner further leveraged his position to get out from under his disastrous real-estate deal for 666 Fifth Avenue in New York. He’d vastly overpaid for the property and was deeply underwater. After failing to get investors from Qatar, he used his influence to threaten a blockade of the tiny country. Qatar relented and found themselves the new owners.

During the pandemic, Jared was tasked with managing distribution for critical items like PPE. A national stockpile of essential equipment like masks and ventilators is kept on hand for public health emergencies. States were begging for it, but Kushner famously said “it’s our stockpile.”  Distribution became a political act with states forced to outbid each other.

To add insult to injury, Kushner put a college pal in charge of an initiative designed to ease medical supply chain issues and speed production of Covid resources. A $100 million dollar budget was granted and yet that money was barely touched for the job. So where did it go?

Jared and his wife Ivanka made plenty of money while working in the White House. Yet once they left is where they really cashed in. Just a few months after leaving office, Jared was given a cool $2 billion from his friend MBS, ostensibly to start an investment fund. This was despite Kushner having no portfolio management experience and MBS’ own financial experts warning against it. The former Secretary of Everything (as he was once called in the White House) got the check.

Most recently, he announced a deal to build luxury properties in Serbia and Albania, even as his father-in-law is running again for the presidency. He also ghoulishly remarked that the waterfront of war-torn Gaza would make for desirable real estate.

These represent just a handful of the ways in which Jared Kushner has actively and shamelessly leveraged his White House access for money, influence, and power (don’t even get me started on the secret Russian “back channel” he tried to establish in the early days of the Trump administration).

But do go on about private citizen Hunter Biden.

Cindy Grogan is a writer, lover of history and "Star Trek" (TOS), and hardcore politics junkie. There was that one time she campaigned for Gerald Ford (yikes), but ever since, she's been devoted to Democratic and progressive policies.