Kushner Legal Team Prepares Suit Over $2 Billion Book Allegations

Jared Kushner’s legal team announced plans to sue over allegations in a new book that claim he controlled over $2 billion in undisclosed funds from Middle Eastern leaders. The lawyer for the former White House adviser described the claims as false and defamatory on Thursday, stating they intend to pursue legal action against those responsible. The statement did not specify which parties would be named in the lawsuit.

The controversy stems from an excerpt of "Princes and Thieves: Jared Kushner and Mohamed bin Zayed's Secret Plot to Remake the Middle East," published by journalist Matthew Cole in Vanity Fair on Thursday. The book asserts that Kushner had access to slush money from Gulf states intended to buy influence within the U.S. government. It details a complex network of financial transfers and intelligence activities that allegedly spanned his tenure as a senior White House adviser in the first Trump administration.

The narrative traces back to 2017, when the excerpt claims Dutch intelligence agents discovered that Russia had hacked Kushner's iPhone. According to the account, the Dutch service accessed the device after turning a Russian spy. The report states that agents could view Kushner's screen in real time and captured every image he viewed during that period.

The book alleges that Dutch spies watched Kushner log into a United Arab Emirates account that had received hundreds of millions of dollars from a bank in Azerbaijan. It further claims that Saudi Arabia and the UAE deposited at least $2 billion into several bank accounts tied to Kushner, including one held at Israel's Central Bank. The excerpt states that account owners were often presented as official government bodies or charities, but the money was actually reserved for off-the-books diplomatic objectives, such as brokering a deal to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The report cites a person with knowledge of the money who said Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman placed roughly $1 billion in at least one account for Kushner's personal benefit. Kushner and his team rejected these figures on Thursday night. Kushner stated that the allegations were completely insane and that his side denied every claim on the record. He noted that the author provided no bank statements, wire transfer records, account numbers, or transaction dates to support the story.

The White House also weighed in on the matter. Steven Cheung, assistant to the president and White House director of communications, posted on X that the book was complete fiction fabricated by a failed spy thriller writer. Cheung said the article presented no evidence or documentation, relying instead on mysterious words from unnamed sources. CBS News has not independently verified the excerpt's claims.