Jared Kushner was an undergrad at Harvard when politicians started receiving big-dollar campaign donations bearing his name.
In reality, the money had been sent by his father, a powerful New Jersey real estate mogul. Over the span of several years, Charles Kushner pumped half a million dollars into political campaigns, avoiding legal limits by attributing checks to family members and business associates without their knowledge. The scheme sent the elder Kushner to prison and engulfed the family in scandal.
It was a defining episode for Jared Kushner, now 35 years old, who has been poised to become one of the most trusted advisers to his father-in-law, Donald Trump.
The donation scandal shows a glimpse of the privilege and influence that marked the upbringing of Kushner in a prominent family. But friends said that it also revealed in Kushner, a fundamental trait that Trump prizes and has strengthened their bond unflinching loyalty.
Younger Kushner flew to Alabama to visit his father almost every Sunday during his 14 months behind bars, far from seeing his father’s actions as a betrayal, the . He took the helm of the family business. And he insisted publicly that his father was unfairly prosecuted.
former New Jersey governor Jim McGreevey, a Democrat, who counted Charles Kushner as his biggest donor until McGreevey resigned in 2004 amid a sex scandal ‘‘Jared is a devoted son in an almost old-world sense of respect and duty and devotion,’’
By Prakriti Neogi
