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Princes and Thieves
The same investigation, restaged one beat at a time. Drive it with the arrow keys, space, or autoplay. Nothing is cut from the piece — long runs are split across frames. Read the full investigation or open the Self-Dealing & Crony Capitalism hub.
Princes and Thieves.
A new Vanity Fair investigation alleges Saudi Arabia and the UAE set up a secret, multi-billion-dollar fund for Jared Kushner while he was a senior White House adviser — surfaced, improbably, through Dutch intelligence screenshots of his hacked iPhone.
Matthew Cole's Vanity Fair investigation (adapted from his book) alleges MBZ and MBS funded an off-books 'slush fund' for Kushner DURING the Trump administration — at least $2 billion into accounts tied to him, including ~$750M in a First Abu Dhabi Bank account ('Alpha') from 2017 — in exchange for US foreign-policy influence. Extraordinary, detailed, from a credible reporter — but single-outlet and anonymous-intel-sourced.
We keep two layers apart: the DOCUMENTED 2021/22 Saudi PIF $2B into Affinity (after he left, over the fund's panel's objections) = FACT; the NEW wartime-slush-fund / hacked-phone / Azerbaijan-laundering / onward-transfers allegations = SOME SMOKE, attributed, unproven, denied. Quid-pro-quo POSED, not asserted.
Documented: the Saudi PIF put $2 billion into Kushner's firm after he left office — over its own panel's objections.
The solid floor. In 2021-22, ~6 months after Kushner left the White House, Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund committed $2 billion to his new firm Affinity Partners; the PIF's own screening panel recommended against it (Affinity's inexperience, 'unsatisfactory' operations, high fees) before the board, chaired by MBS, overruled it (NYT, Vanity Fair, internal docs). The House Oversight Committee opened an investigation; Qatar and Abu Dhabi later added a reported $1.5B more. On the record, not alleged.
Alleged: a secret Gulf 'slush fund' was set up for Kushner while he was a sitting White House adviser.
The explosive new claim — and the timing is the point: during government, not after. Per Cole, MBZ and MBS early in the first Trump term offered to fund the administration's foreign-policy aims (>$10B initially floated, including border-wall money) before it narrowed to at least $2B into at least two accounts tied to Kushner; the 'Alpha' account at First Abu Dhabi Bank (chaired by MBZ's brother Tahnoon bin Zayed) allegedly took ~$750M from 2017. SOME SMOKE: detailed, specific, credible reporter + forthcoming book — but single-outlet, anonymous-intel-sourced, unproven, and certain to be denied.
Alleged: it surfaced because Dutch intelligence had screenshots of Kushner's hacked iPhone.
The sourcing is as extraordinary as the claim, and cuts both ways. Cole reports the Netherlands' MIVD got access to Kushner's iPhone after turning a GRU hacker who led them to a Russian server holding screenshots of his screen; the Dutch then built their own exploit and watched his phone from ~2018, allegedly seeing him log into a UAE account funded by hundreds of millions routed through a bank in Azerbaijan (a money-laundering way station). A remarkable intelligence story if true — but exactly the kind of claim (foreign spy services, anonymous sources, intercepts no reader can inspect) that demands corroboration before it hardens into fact.
The quid-pro-quo — 'push their agenda with Trump if they participated in a fund' — is a source's characterization, posed.
The heart of why this is corruption rather than a business tie is one sourced quote: a person with knowledge said 'Jared promised MBZ that he'd push their agenda with Trump if they participated in a fund. He wanted normalization with Israel so that business could take off,' framing it as a 'slush fund… a common form of Gulf Arab government corruption.' If established, grave — but it's one anonymous source's characterization of intent, not a documented agreement. We pose it, don't assert it. Note the overlap: the administration DID pursue the normalization MBZ/MBS wanted — plausible, but correlation isn't proof.
Kushner denies impropriety; the new claims are uncorroborated as of publication — that's the open question.
Both true, held together: Kushner has consistently maintained his Gulf dealings were proper and lawful and will deny the new allegations; we carry that. And as of this writing the new claims rest on one outlet + anonymous intelligence sourcing, not independently corroborated or in any public record. We grade FACT only the settled things — that the reporting exists and makes these claims, that Kushner denies wrongdoing, and that the 2021-22 PIF investment is documented. Whether the wartime slush fund is real is the question the reporting opens, not one it closes. Corroboration raises the grade; a debunk lowers it, and we'd say so.
The line we hold.
- FACT (documented): the Saudi PIF put $2B into Affinity Partners in 2021-22, after Kushner left office, over its own screening panel's objections (board chaired by MBS overruled); House Oversight investigated; Qatar + Abu Dhabi added a reported $1.5B.
- SOME SMOKE (Cole/Vanity Fair, attributed): a secret ~$2B Gulf 'slush fund' DURING the administration (the ~$750M 'Alpha' account at First Abu Dhabi Bank from 2017); Dutch MIVD screenshots of Kushner's hacked iPhone; Azerbaijan laundering; onward transfers Cole says reached a warlord/mercenary/hit man.
- POSED (not asserted): the quid-pro-quo ('push their agenda with Trump if they participated in a fund') — one anonymous source's characterization of intent; the admin did pursue the normalization MBZ/MBS wanted, but correlation isn't proof.
- CARRIED + OPEN: Kushner denies impropriety; the new claims are single-outlet, anonymous-intel-sourced, unproven as of publication. Corroboration (a second newsroom, documents, a sworn account) would raise the grade; a debunk would lower it. Keep the proven 2022 layer distinct from the alleged wartime layer.
Why it matters.
Strip away every unproven claim and a remarkable documented story remains: a senior White House adviser running Middle East policy, his family business facing a billion-dollar loan on 666 Fifth Avenue, left government and within months took $2 billion from the sovereign fund of a government whose interests he'd shaped — over that fund's own vetters' objections. You don't need a hacked phone to find that alarming; the House didn't. What Cole alleges is that the money started earlier and more secretly — an off-books fund paying for favorable US foreign policy in real time. That's the Iran-Contra shape our reader named: foreign cash, hidden accounts, policy pursued beyond oversight — an apt frame for the allegation, attributed, not a proven equivalence. If it holds, it's the most extreme documented instance of the public-power-for-private-money fusion this site tracks. Zoom out and it's a constitutional story: the Founders wrote the emoluments clauses precisely to stop a foreign prince from buying a US officeholder, and this is that firewall simply gone — a sovereign wiring billions to the family of the man steering policy toward it, with no charge, no clawback. The scale is new too: the Gulf funds control trillions and can now buy the family directly rather than cultivate elites diffusely over a career. And there's a counterintelligence shadow: if a Russian unit and a Dutch service both had Kushner's phone, a sitting official whose finances were entangled with foreign governments was a man those governments had leverage over — the oldest spy nightmare, an insider who can be owned. Our job is to hold the grade honestly until it holds or breaks — and to make sure that if it breaks, we weren't the ones who asserted it as gospel first.
Help us fill these lines.
- OpenIndependent corroboration of the wartime-slush-fund claims — a second newsroom, documents from Cole's book, a sworn account, or any public record — which would move them from SOME SMOKE toward fact.
- OpenKushner's and Affinity's specific, on-the-record response to this reporting (and any response from the UAE/Saudi governments).
- OpenWhether any US body with subpoena power (a congressional committee, DOJ) actually tests the allegations, given the documented 2022 investment alone produced no consequence.