What family corruption in the White House really looks like

[Grace]

Kushner's family has owned a large real estate investment firm since the 70s. For much of his career, Kushner worked as a real-estate investor with Kushner Companies out of NYC. The Saudis knew who the Kushner’s were long before Trump became president. As a private citizen Jared Kushner, currently is part of Affinity Partners a global investment firm. Kushner was part of the investment world right out of college, with experience.

I am not one who has a lot of knowledge on how some investment companies work. But isn’t it true that when a person deposits money for investment, into a company like Morgan Stanley, for instance, it doesn't become Morgan Stanley’s money. They don't get to keep the money. All Morgan Stanley gets is a deposit into the depositor’s account. Now there are people who pay Morgan Stanley to manage their portfolio for them and Morgan Stanley probably takes a commission.

In the Kushner Company’s cases, Kushner was paid to manage the investments, not get the actual money. And yes, the inordinate amount he was paid for that management service is very questionable. But the Kushner Companies didn’t get the actual principle deposited in the investment portfolios, by the foreign nationals. They weren't paid to do nothing and without experience.

If Kushner were guilty of taking bribes, evading paying taxes, entertaining hookers, using sex club memberships as tax write offs, you can be sure the IRS would've sent in an army of armed IRS agents, kicking down doors, arresting Jared and Ivanka. And making sure CNN was there to capture it all. The Democrats would have investigated Kushner to the nines a long time ago. He would have been drug before a special counsel, led by Jerry Nadler and Adam Schiff or whoever, and grilled endlessly about his dealings with the Saudis. And he would be in prison by now. But Kushner didn't demand any (bribe) money from the Saudis and he didn't threaten the Saudis with revenge, shaking them down, if they didn’t pay up, with his Dad in-law beside him at the time of his threats. He didn't work for his management money, without experience and knowledge of the investment world.

[Ken]

Kushner's family has owned a large real estate investment firm since the 70s. For much of his career, Kushner worked as a real-estate investor with Kushner Companies out of NYC. The Saudis knew who the Kushner’s were long before Trump became president. As a private citizen Jared Kushner, currently is part of Affinity Partners a global investment firm. Kushner was part of the investment world right out of college, with experience.

I am not one who has a lot of knowledge on how some investment companies work. But isn’t it true that when a person deposits money for investment, into a company like Morgan Stanley, for instance, it doesn't become Morgan Stanley’s money. They don't get to keep the money. All Morgan Stanley gets is a deposit into the depositor’s account. Now there are people who pay Morgan Stanley to manage their portfolio for them and Morgan Stanley probably takes a commission.

In the Kushner Company’s cases, Kushner was paid to manage the investments, not get the actual money. And yes, the inordinate amount he was paid for that management service is very questionable. But the Kushner Companies didn’t get the actual principle deposited in the investment portfolios, by the foreign nationals. They weren't paid to do nothing and without experience.

If Kushner were guilty of taking bribes, evading paying taxes, entertaining hookers, using sex club memberships as tax write offs, you can be sure the IRS would've sent in an army of armed IRS agents, kicking down doors, arresting Jared and Ivanka. And making sure CNN was there to capture it all. The Democrats would have investigated Kushner to the nines a long time ago. He would have been drug before a special counsel, led by Jerry Nadler and Adam Schiff and grilled endlessly about his dealings with the Saudis. And he would be in prison by now. But Kushner didn't demand any (bribe) money from the Saudis and he didn't threaten the Saudis with revenge, shaking them down, if they didn’t pay up, with his Dad in-law beside him at the time of his threats.

We don't actually know what Kushner demanded or didn't demand of the Saudis. We do know that he illegally used WhatsApp to communicate with the Saudis in violation of the same regulations that Hillary Clinton was accused of violating when she let some official government business leak out onto her private server: https://www.businessinsider.com/jared-k ... man-2020-1

In any event, the point isn't that taking money from the Saudis is illegal. It wasn't illegal for Hunter Biden to be on the Burisma board and take money from them either.

What is illegal is to use your government position for private gain. That is clearly what Jarred Kushner did but not Hunter Biden as Hunter Biden never had a government position to gain from in the first place.

[Grace]

What is illegal is to use your government position for private gain. That is clearly what Jarred Kushner did but not Hunter Biden as Hunter Biden never had a government position to gain from in the first place.

With the Democrats penchant to indict Trump and anyone pertaining to him, if there was solid verifiable facts to that statement, I am sure Kushner would be in prison by now.

[Bootstrap]

Color me shocked that politicians and their families make money off of their positions of power.

Influence peddling is not the name of a crime. By itself, it is not illegal. And a LOT of people take up influence peddling when they retire from Congress or lose an election, so I doubt Congress will ever change that.

[Ken]

What is illegal is to use your government position for private gain. That is clearly what Jarred Kushner did but not Hunter Biden as Hunter Biden never had a government position to gain from in the first place.

With the Democrats penchant to indict Trump and anyone pertaining to him, if there was solid verifiable facts to that statement, I am sure Kushner would be in prison by now.

Patience

We have Trump's 91 felonies to get through first.

[HondurasKeiser]

Color me shocked that politicians and their families make money off of their positions of power.

Influence peddling is not the name of a crime. By itself, it is not illegal. And a LOT of people take up influence peddling when they retire from Congress or lose an election, so I doubt Congress will ever change that.

Did I claim it was a crime?

[Bootstrap]

Color me shocked that politicians and their families make money off of their positions of power.

Influence peddling is not the name of a crime. By itself, it is not illegal. And a LOT of people take up influence peddling when they retire from Congress or lose an election, so I doubt Congress will ever change that.

Did I claim it was a crime?

No, not at all. I was agreeing with you, adding some more detail.

[Ken]

Influence peddling is not the name of a crime. By itself, it is not illegal. And a LOT of people take up influence peddling when they retire from Congress or lose an election, so I doubt Congress will ever change that.

Did I claim it was a crime?

No, not at all. I was agreeing with you, adding some more detail.

It is MOST DEFINITELY a crime if any of it happens while you are holding any kind of public office at all with the Federal government, formal or informal.

Here is the US Office of Government Ethics summary of the law in this area: https://www.oge.gov/web/oge.nsf/Resourc ... f+Interest

The basic criminal conflict of interest statute, 18 U.S.C. § 208, prohibits Government employees from participating personally and substantially in official matters where they have a financial interest. In addition to their own interests, those of their spouse, minor child, general partner, and certain other persons and organizations are attributed to them. Assets and other interests, such as employment interests, may also present potential conflicts under other criminal and civil statutes, as well as the Standards of Ethical Conduct for Employees of the Executive Branch. To assist ethics officials in preventing conflicts of interest, the U.S. Office of Government Ethics (OGE) has developed a series of guides on identifying potential conflicts of interest that can arise from various types of employment interests, investment interests, and liabilities.

The law is long and very extensive in this area.

[JohnHurt]

I don't think that's true. I realize it has been spun that way, but if they had video evidence of Joe Biden doing that, impeachment proceedings would have started on Day One.

Impeachment requires both the House and the Senate, and has never succeeded.

Perhaps we should consider that both Trump and Biden are fallen men. Biden is beholden to the Oil industry, and closed the pipelines to raise the price of gas so that his buddies could make more money.

Trump, with his "Operation Warp Speed", has never refused the pharmaceutical industry. They are both corrupt.

The only person that has "by their fruits ye shall know them" - represented the people against the Big corporations is RFK Jr. That is what the Democrat party should be, a representative of the working people, not these elites.

Regardless, if you vote for Joe Biden, or encourage others to vote for him on this forum, and he continues the war in Ukraine, which he will, then you have some responsibility for the people that are being killed there.

Trump and RFK Jr. have both said they will stop the war in Ukraine. And if they are lying to us, then that is their fault more than ours.

But if we knowingly support a candidate that opposes many of the teachings of Christ, are we not, at least by proxy, also opposing the teachings of Christ?

How can we say we follow Christ and "turn the other cheek" towards non-violence, when "Our Candidate" wants continuous war?

Do you remember JFK? And how when he was killed, Johnson upped the Vietnam war dramatically? And Richard Nixon promised to get us out of Vietnam, and drew down the forces so we were out by 1975 under Ford.

People voted for Nixon because they hate war. People will vote against Biden for the same reason.

I hope you encourage everyone to vote against Biden as part of your anti-war stance.

[Josh]

I care a lot more about if something is right or wrong than if it is a “crime”.

Using public office which is supposed to be about serving your fellow man, to instead gain millions or even billions of dollars, is wrong.

As Christians my main concern is right, wrong, and a path forward to salvation for those caught in wrongdoing.