White House officials have been looking into whether $500m in loans that went to Jared Kushner’s family real estate company may have spurred ethics or criminal law violations, according to the head of the federal government’s ethics agency. David Apol, acting director of the Office of Government Ethics, said in a letter sent late last week to representative Raja Krishnamoorthi that the White House counsel’s office told him officials were investigating the loans to Kushner Companies and whether “additional procedures are necessary to avoid violations in the future”.

Krishnamoorthi, an Illinois Democrat, asked Apol on 1 March about a New York Times report in February that Kushner Companies accepted $184m in loans from Apollo Global Management and $325m from Citigroup last year over a span of several months after Kushner met officials from the two firms.

As Donald Trump’s son-in-law and key adviser, Kushner plays an influential role in domestic and foreign policy decisions. Late on Monday, Kushner’s attorney, Abbe Lowell, said “the White House counsel concluded there were no issues involving Jared”. Several White House officials contacted for comment were not immediately available to confirm whether White House lawyers had completed the inquiry.

Lowell denied any improprieties by Kushner, saying “he was not involved with his former company after he entered government service; the transactions in question came after that; he had nothing to do with those transactions; the transactions had nothing to do with any of his meetings in the White House”. Both companies have insisted their officials did nothing wrong in meeting with Kushner. In one case cited by the Times, Citigroup lent $325m to Kushner Companies in spring 2017, shortly after Kushner met Citi’s chief executive, Michael Corbat. Last week, Citigroup’s general counsel told several Democratic lawmakers in a letter that the loan was “completely appropriate”.(theguardian)…[+]