Ivanka Trump and her husband Jared Kushner shared festive pictures together on Thursday – a day after the president pardoned Kushner’s father Charles for extorting his own brother-in-law using a prostitute.
The first daughter, 39, shared the image from the White House, writing: ‘Merry Christmas Eve!’
The couple are spending the holidays in Mar-a-Lago with President Donald Trump and first lady Melania. They are scheduled to enjoy a 10-day visit at their resort during the last Christmas of Donald’s presidency.
Ivanka was seen in Florida on Tuesday distributing food boxes to families in Miami; Jared flew down on Air Force One a day later with Donald and Melania.
President Trump granted wealthy real estate magnate Charles, 66, a full pardon Wednesday. The White House issued a statement announcing the pardon citing his philanthropy work since leaving prison.
Kushner’s pardon has refocused the spotlight on the scandal that rocked the New Jersey businessman and put him behind bars for almost two years.
After Charles Kushner discovered his brother-in-law was cooperating with federal authorities he hatched a scheme for revenge and intimidation.
He 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.
The first daughter, 39, shared the image from the White House Thursday, writing: ‘Merry Christmas Eve!’
The couple are spending the holidays in Mar-a-Lago with President Donald Trump and first lady Melania
While his son now has very close ties to the Republican party, Kushner used to be one of the most prominent fundraisers for the Democratic party, often hosting events for the likes of President Bill Clinton and Vice President Al Gore.
In 2001, he was the biggest single campaign contributor to New Jersey Governor James McGreevey’s campaign, helping him secure a win and in turn being named chairman of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.
He was also a prominent figure in the Jewish community, helping synagogues and schools.
Then came his spectacular fall from grace.
The president granted the wealthy real estate magnate, 66, a full pardon Wednesday. After Charles Kushner discovered his brother-in-law was cooperating with federal authorities, the wealthy real estate executive and father of President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared, hatched a scheme for revenge and intimidation. Pictured Kusher and Jared in 2012
Ivanka’s husband Jared flew join down to join his wife Wednesday. The first daughter is pictured Tuesday in Miami
Senior Advisor Jared Kushner follows President Trump and First lady Melania Trump, as they depart the White House. The Kushner family was greatly embarrassed by the prosecution of Charles Kushner, who plead guilty to multiple crimes in 2004
The Trumps exit from Air Force One at the Palm Beach International Airport on Wednesday. Melania Trump on Wednesday ditched her thigh high boots and changed into shoes and a dress for her arrival in Florida
In 2003, federal prosecutors began investigating him for making illegal campaign donations.
Kushner then learned that his brother-in-law and former business partner William Schulder was cooperating with prosecutors.
He hatched a plot to pay a sex worker $10,000 to seduce Schulder at a New Jersey restaurant and then lure him to her hotel room.
Footage has resurfaced of Chris Christie once calling Charles Kushner’s hiring of a prostitute to seduce his brother-in-law one of the ‘most loathsome, disgusting crimes I ever prosecuted’, after Donald Trump pardoned Jared’s father this week
The illicit encounter was then filmed with a secret camera and Kushner had the tape sent anonymously to Schulder’s wife – his own sister – Esther in a ploy to stop the pair testifying.
The couple famously received the tape while they were getting ready for their son’s engagement party.
But the plot failed and Kushner ended up instead adding witness tampering to his charges.
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.
Then-US Attorney Chris Christie had sought a longer sentence but Kushner struck a plea deal making two years the maximum length.
He served 14 months in a low-security prison in Alabama.
He also paid $508,900 to the FEC for violating contribution regulations by failing to obtain an OK from partners to whom more than $500,000 in contributions were credited.
The case went down as one of Christie’s most successful, high-profile cases as US attorney and paved the way for his post as New Jersey governor.
On Thursday footage resurfaced of Christie once calling Charles Kushner’s actions one of the ‘most loathsome, disgusting crimes I ever prosecuted’.
Jared has spoken out about the challenges he faced seeing his father behind bars.
‘When you’re on the other side of the system, you feel so helpless,’ Kushner said back in 2018.
‘I felt like, I was on this side of the system, so how can I try to do whatever I can do to try to be helpful to the people who are going through it [and deserve a second chance].’
He also defended his dad over the sex tape back in 2009 – the same year he married Ivanka.
‘His siblings stole every piece of paper from his office, and they took it to the government. Siblings that he literally made wealthy for doing nothing. He gave them interests in the business for nothing,’ he told New York Magazine.
‘All he did was put the tape together and send it. Was it the right thing to do? At the end of the day, it was a function of saying, ‘You’re trying to make my life miserable? Well, I’m doing the same.”
Trump and Jared in the White House. The younger Kushner has talked openly about how deeply his father’s imprisonment impacted his life. He was in his early 20s and a law and business school student in the mid-2000s when his father was sentenced and suddenly found himself having to run the family’s businesses while shuttling back and forth on weekends to see his father in Alabama
In 2003, federal prosecutors began investigating Kushner for making illegal campaign donations. Charles Kushner, Jared Kushner and Barbara Kushner are pictured in 2007
Jared and Christie became unlikely allies when they both worked on Trump’s transition team in 2016.
Christie was even touted for the roles of vice president and US attorney general in Trump’s administration.
But the role never came to fruition and Christie was ousted from the team – with rumors that Kushner was behind the move.
Both downplayed the idea with Christie insisting in 2017 that ‘that stuff is ancient history. It’s over 12 years ago.’
‘Jared and I have worked incredibly well on this issue and, by the way, on a whole bunch of other issues during the campaign,’ he said of a campaign they were both put to work on battling the opioid epidemic.
‘Jared and I get along just great.’
Kushner also insisted in November 2016 they ‘worked very well together’.
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 Christie had sought. Kushner also agreed to pay $508,900 to the FEC for violating contribution regulations by failing to obtain an OK from partners to whom more than $500,000 in contributions were credited
Charles Kushner, wife Seryl Beth and his attorney Alfred DeCotiis at the Newark Federal Court for his 2005 sentencing
‘Six months ago, Gov. Christie and I decided this election was much bigger than any differences we may have had in the past, and we worked very well together,’ Kushner said.
‘The media has speculated on a lot of different things, and since I don’t talk to the press, they go as they go, but I was not behind pushing out him or his people.’
But Christie changed his stance last year, writing in his memoir that he orchestrated a political ‘hit job’ to have him removed from the inner circle.