Kushner's $2 Billion Gulf Fund Claims Face Legal Challenge

Jared Kushner's legal team is targeting the author of a book that claims he managed secret Gulf slush funds. The book, titled 'Princes and Thieves: Jared Kushner and Mohamed bin Zayed's Secret Plot to Remake the Middle East,' alleges that Kushner had access to more than $2 billion in funds from Middle Eastern leaders, supposedly meant to buy influence within the U.S. government. The book's claims include that Dutch intelligence agents learned in 2017 that Russia had hacked Kushner's iPhone and that Kushner used the phone to log into a United Arab Emirates account that had received hundreds of millions of dollars from a bank in Azerbaijan. The report also claims that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman placed roughly $1 billion in at least one account, citing a 'person with knowledge of the money' who said its allocation was for Kushner's personal benefit. Kushner and his legal team issued sharp statements denying everything, calling the allegations 'completely insane' and 'false and defamatory.'

The book's claims are based on an upcoming book by journalist Matthew Cole, and Kushner has called them baseless. An excerpt published Thursday in Vanity Fair covers Kushner's years as a senior White House adviser in the first Trump administration. In that role he took a leading part in U.S. Middle East policy and helped negotiate major foreign policy deals involving Israel, the Gulf states, China and Russia. CBS News has not independently verified the excerpt.

The report alleges that the owners and managers of the accounts were often presented as official government bodies or charities. The money, it says, was actually intended for 'off-the-books diplomatic objectives,' such as brokering a deal to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The report further claims that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman placed roughly $1 billion in at least one account, citing a 'person with knowledge of the money' who said its allocation was for Kushner's personal benefit.

Kushner's legal team is preparing to sue over the book's allegations of a $2 billion Gulf fund. The book's claims are based on an upcoming book by journalist Matthew Cole, and Kushner has called them baseless. An excerpt published Thursday in Vanity Fair covers Kushner's years as a senior White House adviser in the first Trump administration. In that role he took a leading part in U.S. Middle East policy and helped negotiate major foreign policy deals involving Israel, the Gulf states, China and Russia. CBS News has not independently verified the excerpt.

The report alleges that the owners and managers of the accounts were often presented as official government bodies or charities. The money, it says, was actually intended for 'off-the-books diplomatic objectives,' such as brokering a deal to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The report further claims that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman placed roughly $1 billion in at least one account, citing a 'person with knowledge of the money' who said its allocation was for Kushner's personal benefit.