MEAWW.COM / NEWS / HUMAN INTEREST

Who is Charles Kushner? CNN's Jake Tapper recalls bizarre tale of tax fraud and sex as Trump pardons Jared's dad

'Just trying to contemplate what kind of a person finds out his sister and brother-in-law are cooperating with a US Attorney investigation so he hires a prostitute to sleep with his brother in law so he can film it and give the tape to his sister during her son's engagement party,' Tapper wrote

CNN anchor Jake Tapper ripped into the president's choice to pardon Charles Kushner, the father of President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared and senior advisor, Jared Kushner. He was one of the 26 people granted a full pardon by Trump on Wednesday, December 23.

To highlight the bizarreness of Charles' crimes, which involved a nearly two-year prison sentence for a tax fraud case, Tapper tweeted, "Just trying to contemplate what kind of a person finds out his sister and brother-in-law are cooperating with a US Attorney investigation so he hires a prostitute to sleep with his brother-in-law so he can film it and give the tape to his sister during her son's engagement party." Another tweet said, "This is a reference to the newly-pardoned Charles Kushner, for anyone wondering."

Soon enough, Tapper's followers jumped into the comments section to reflect on the plot of Charles' crimes as pieced together by the news host. "But isn't that the problem solving ethos of the Kushner family? After all, Jared's grandmother lied on her immigration form about who her husband actually was to get a US visa quicker," one of them said, while another remarked, "And even he didn’t think Ivanka was good enough for his family at first." A third quipped, "My family looks amazing to this one!" One more commented, "Very fine people indeed."

The next reacted with, "I’m thinking someone who frequently watches and rewatches The Godfather Trilogy." One more said, "I thought at first that this was the storyline for a Hallmark holidays movie." Another tweeted, "On the upside, nobody who was there will forget that party." One of them tweeted, "I read this and thought this was a new Jerry Springer episode." A commenter wrote, "The kind of person that sires a person like Jared, 'That's Our Stockpile' Kushner. This administration is like living in a sewer, and quite frankly, the stench is disgusting." Another remarked, "I thought I was reading a soap opera script."

Who is Charles Kushner?

Son of Holocaust survivors, Charles earned MBA and law degrees and practiced law for four years. He joined his father and his wife's brother to open a real estate business. The trio eventually built a sprawling real estate empire with an estimated $3 billion in property in New Jersey and beyond. Charles also turned his business into an efficient political fund-raising mechanism known as “bundling” through which he supported Gov. James McGreevey, Cory Booker in his first run against Newark Mayor Sharpe James, and the Bill Clinton campaign.

After a bitter family dispute with former partner and brother, Murray, he came under federal investigation over accounting for campaign contributions. The case was then pursued by then-US Attorney Chris Christie. Charles later admitted to defrauding the IRS of between $200,000 and $325,000 by filing 16 tax returns. He apparently claimed those political contributions as “office expenses." He also admitted lying to the Federal Election Commission when he reported $385,000 in political contributions from his business partners. The partners in question said they were not aware of the donations.

At the time, Charles was also charged with paying $25,000 to arrange for a prostitute to seduce his brother-in-law. He then videotaped the motel tryst sent it to his sister as a form of intimidation because she took Murray's side and became a witness in the federal investigation. Charles pleaded guilty to violating tax and campaign laws, and obstruction of justice and also acknowledged orchestrating the retaliation plot. As a result, he served 14 months of a two-year sentence in federal prison.