WATCHDOG SEES KUSHNER LINK TO DUBIOUS $700M RESCUE LOAN TO FIRM

A congressional monitor of federal pandemic aid is raising the possibility of a link between President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and a $700 million relief loan to a struggling trucking company, Marcy Gordon reported for the Associated Press (AP).

Bharat Ramamurti, a Democratic member of the four-person Congressional Oversight Commission, raised the possible Kushner connection at a hearing Thursday, as panel members from both parties challenged the Treasury Department’s decision to award the loan to YRC Worldwide. The taxpayer-funded loan was made on the ground that the firm’s operations are critical for maintaining national security. The congressional monitors found that taxpayers could be at risk of losing money on the $700 million investment. YRC has had financial problems for years, well before the onset of the pandemic and has been at risk of bankruptcy.

The panel members questioned the decision to deem YRC’s business vital to national security. It was the first and by far the largest loan made under the national security portion of the Treasury Department’s corporate aid program, which has loaned billions to major airlines and smaller air carriers. YRC received a separate $600 million loan last year from Apollo Global Management and several other lenders that was arranged by Apollo, a big private equity firm that is YRC’s biggest creditor, according to the oversight panel. Apollo co-founder Joshua Harris advised the Trump administration on infrastructure policy in early 2017 and met with Kushner, who is an adviser to the president. Later that year, Apollo lent $184 million to Kushner’s family real estate company to help refinance its mortgage on a Chicago building, according to a New York Times report cited by Ramamurti.

Ramamurti asked Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin whether he had had contacts with Kushner or his staff regarding the YRC loan. Mnuchin said he had not. Ramamurti then broadened the question to a request for correspondence with anyone in the White House. “This warrants further investigation,” Ramamurti said. He called the loan to YRC “a fast-tracked, extremely generous loan that just so happened to help” Apollo as YRC’s creditor.