Kushner Vanity Fair Report: Trump, Dems React
On Oct. 22, 2026, Vanity Fair published an excerpt from journalist Matthew Cole's forthcoming book "Princes and Thieves," alleging that during the first Trump administration Jared Kushner gained access to at least $2 billion from the rulers of the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia through accounts disguised as government entities or charities, including one reportedly at Israel's central bank. The excerpt says Dutch intelligence learned in 2017 from a flipped Russian spy that Russia had hacked Kushner's iPhone, and that Dutch agents then watched his screen as he logged into a UAE account that had received hundreds of millions of dollars from an Azerbaijani bank. CBS News and other outlets said they had not independently verified the claims. Kushner, now the administration's Middle East envoy, called the allegations "completely insane" and said the author provided "not a single shred of verifiable evidence." His lawyer, Chad Mizelle, sent Condé Nast a letter calling the claims "false and defamatory" and demanding the excerpt be taken down. White House communications director Steven Cheung called the book "complete fiction," and Trump called it "a totally false story." The Jerusalem Post removed its write-up of the report, citing "significant factual questions." House Judiciary Committee Democrats said Kushner should answer their oversight questions "under oath," and Reps. Mike Levin and Sean Casten called the report "extraordinary" and "UNBELIEVABLY damning." The book is due out the following Tuesday from Simon & Schuster.
“[To reporters as he left the White House, asked about the Vanity Fair report on his son-in-law:] It's a false story. It's a totally false story. … It was just fake news. Amazing.”