Donald Trump is set to make another controversial addition to his top team after saying he wants convicted tax evader Charles Kushner to serve as ambassador to France.
The president-elect made the announcement in a Truth Social post, calling Mr Kushner “a tremendous business leader, philanthropist, & dealmaker”.
The real estate developer is the father of Mr Trump‘s son-in-law Jared Kushner.
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Mr Kushner is the founder of Kushner Companies, a real estate firm. Jared Kushner is a former senior Trump adviser who is married to Mr Trump’s eldest daughter, Ivanka.
The elder Mr Kushner was pardoned by Mr Trump in December 2020 after pleading guilty years earlier to tax evasion and making illegal campaign donations.
Prosecutors alleged that after Charles Kushner discovered his brother-in-law was co-operating with federal authorities in an investigation, he hatched a scheme for revenge and intimidation.
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Mr Kushner hired a prostitute to lure his brother-in-law, then arranged to have the encounter in a New Jersey motel room recorded with a hidden camera and the recording sent to his own sister, the man’s wife, prosecutors said.
Mr Kushner eventually pleaded guilty to 18 counts including tax evasion and witness tampering.
He was sentenced in 2005 to two years in prison – the most he could receive under a plea deal, but less than what Chris Christie, the US attorney for New Jersey at the time and later governor and Republican presidential candidate, had sought.
Mr Christie has blamed Jared Kushner for his firing from Mr Trump’s transition team in 2016, and has called Charles Kushner’s offences “one of the most loathsome, disgusting crimes that I prosecuted when I was US attorney”.
Mr Trump and the elder Mr Kushner knew each other from real estate circles and their children were married in 2009.