President-elect Donald Trump on Saturday nominated Charles Kushner, the father of his son-in-law Jared Kushner, as the US ambassador to France, in the latest of several controversial picks.
Kushner “is a tremendous business leader, philanthropist, & dealmaker, who will be a strong advocate representing our Country & its interests,” Trump said on his Truth Social website, adding that Jared “worked closely with me in the White House.”
The choice is in keeping with Trump’s pattern, so far, of selecting people, often wealthy, who are close to his family or of proven loyalty. Kushner is a multimillionaire real estate executive and former attorney; his son was a senior adviser during Trump’s first term.
Trump did not mention, however, that the elder Kushner once served jail time – a two-year sentence, most of it served in a federal prison. Kushner, who is now 70, pleaded guilty in 2004 to 18 counts of tax evasion, witness tampering and making illegal campaign contributions.
The case, which was prosecuted by then US attorney Chris Christie, included sordid details, to which Kushner admitted that he had hired a prostitute to seduce his brother-in-law, a man cooperating in a campaign finance inquiry, and then videotaped the encounter and sent it to the man’s wife, Kushner’s sister, to dissuade her from testifying against him.
Christie, who worked on Trump’s first presidential transition team and then opposed him in this year’s Republican primary contests, later said Kushner had committed a “loathsome” and “disgusting crime.”
In 2020, Trump issued a pardon to Kushner, whose conviction had resulted in him being disbarred in three states.
Nominees for key ambassadorships are often business associates of a president-elect, or major political donors. But it is rare, if not unprecedented, to name a convicted felon.
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The first two men to fill the prestigious Paris post were famed inventor and statesman Benjamin Franklin and a future president, Thomas Jefferson.
If confirmed, Kushner would succeed Denise Bauer, a former ambassador to Belgium who was a major Democratic fundraiser and donor.
‘Exposing corruption’
Also on Saturday, Trump named Kash Patel as FBI head, turning to a fierce loyalist to upend the top US law enforcement agency. The move would mean replacing the agency’s current leader.
The incoming president announced the former advisor and Pentagon official, who is known for his views blasting the so-called government “deep state,” as his choice for the post on his Truth Social network. Hard-liner Republicans have for years insisted that a supposed “deep state” of allegedly biased government bureaucrats has worked to stifle Trump from behind the scenes.
The FBI’s current director, Christopher Wray, was appointed to a 10-year term in 2017, meaning he would either need to step down or be fired.
“Kash is a brilliant lawyer, investigator and ‘America First’ fighter who has spent his career exposing corruption, defending Justice, and protecting the American People,” Trump wrote in the post. Patel, the son of Indian immigrants and author of a book about the “deep state,” served in several high-level posts during Trump’s first term, including as a national security advisor and as chief of staff to the acting defense secretary.
“Kash did an incredible job during my First Term,” Trump said, adding that he would work to “end the growing crime epidemic in America, dismantle the migrant criminal gangs, and stop the evil scourge of human and drug trafficking across the Border.”
Separately, Trump nominated Chad Chronister, a Florida sheriff, as administrator of the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA).
“Chad will work with our great Attorney General, Pam Bondi, to secure the Border, stop the flow of Fentanyl, and other Illegal Drugs, across the Southern Border, and SAVE LIVES,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
Bondi, a staunch Trump ally and former Florida attorney general, is the president-elect’s pick to lead the Department of Justice.
Trump taps Charles Kushner, his son-in-law’s father, as envoy to France and Kash Patel as FBI head
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