“HE HATE, HATE, HATES IT”: SESSIONS FUMES AS KUSHNER GETS PARDON FEVER
Jared Kushner
“HE HATE, HATE, HATES IT”: SESSIONS FUMES AS KUSHNER GETS PARDON FEVER
With Kim Kardashian and liberals like Van Jones, the princely Trump son-in-law is trying to reset his reputation. But not everyone in the administration is happy about it.
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BY
JUNE 13, 2018 1:05 PM
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Jared Kushner near the East Room after Trump spoke at the Prison Reform Summit, May 18, 2018.
By Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post/Getty Images.
Donald Trump’s biggest week on the global stage was as notable for what it included—a Michael Bay-style movie trailer, homilies to Kim Jong Un’s “talent” and “love”—as for who it didn’t: Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner. Kushner’s absence from the G7 and Singapore summits is being discussed and parsed by Trump advisers. “He’s staying out of everything,” one administration official told me. The consensus among the sources I spoke with is that Kushner is, finally, applying lessons he learned during his bruising first year in Washington, during which his absurdly broad portfolio rendered him a punch line.
It’s not that Kushner is hiding. As I reported yesterday, he’s exuding confidence now that his security clearance has been restored and he’s all but vanquished his foe, Chief of Staff John Kelly (not to mention he had a windfall investment year, raking in $82 million in 2017). Talk of Kushner returning to New York has quieted. “Jared is winning,” a former West Wing staffer said. But instead of trying to fix problems around the globe, Kushner has refocused on a much narrower agenda—and earning points with the sorts of coastal constituencies that have spurned him. Sources say that is partly why Kushner hosted his own Kim summit with Kim Kardashian, and is aggressively lobbying his father-in-law to pardon more people. It’s part of Kushner’s strategy to repair his reputational damage with liberals.
In recent months, Kushner has cultivated a close relationship with CNN host and criminal-justice reform advocate Van Jones. “Jared is obsessed with Van,” one Trump adviser said. Kushner invited Jones to the White House multiple times and the two communicate frequently, Jones told me. “Jared and I have 99 problems but prison ain’t one,” Jones said. “I’ve found him to be effective, straightforward, and dogged.” Jones has lavished praise on Kushner publicly. In January, Jones wrote a CNN op-ed headlined, “Kushner’s effort to sway Trump on prison reform is smart.”
The Kushner-Jones alliance has infuriated some Republican members of the administration, especially Attorney General Jeff Sessions. “He hate, hate, hates it,” a person close to Sessions said. But Sessions, who is hanging on for survival amidst frequent Trump attacks, has no power to move against Kushner. Sources say Trump may even like that Sessions is outraged because Trump is looking for anything that will get Sessions to quit so he can appoint an attorney general who isn’t recused in the Russia investigation. (The White House did not respond to a request for comment.)
Jones told me Trump liked the positive media coverage that followed his pardon of Alice Johnson at the urging of Kardashian and Kushner. “Trump was pleasantly surprised,” Jones said. “I hope the president feels encouraged to do more.”
One person who recently spoke with Kushner said the president’s son-in-law is gearing up for a big pardon push. The source said Kardashian gave Kushner a list of people to pardon, some of whom are hip-hop artists. “They’re going to be pardoning a lot of people—pardons that even Obama wouldn’t do,” the person said.
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2018...pushes-pardons
