Son-in-law’s paper to stop helping Trump campaign
The New York Observer said its editor would no longer consult with the campaign of Donald Trump, whose son-in-law, Jared Kushner, owns the weekly.
The April 5 statement came a day after a New York magazine profile of the front-runner in the race for the Republican presidential nod said that Observer editor Ken Kurson had assisted Kushner in writing Trump’s speech last month to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.
“A recent report about Observer Editor Ken Kurson’s input on a speech delivered by Donald Trump before AIPAC has resulted in new scrutiny of our newspaper’s relationship with Mr. Trump, who is the father-in-law of our publisher, Jared Kushner,” the newspaper’s political editor, Jill Jorgensen, said in the statement. “Going forward, there will be no input whatsoever on the campaign from Mr. Kurson or anyone on the editorial side of the Observer.”
Ivanka Trump, Donald Trump’s daughter, is married to Kushner, who is an Orthodox Jew. Kushner has been the subject in recent days of multiple profiles because he is in the small circle of advisers to his father-in-law’s campaign, albeit in an informal capacity.
The scion of a real estate family that has given heavily to Jewish and pro-Israel causes, Kushner has advised his father-in-law to pivot to a more traditional campaign, Reuters reported this week, and to reach out to establishment Republican donors. Kushner and his father, Charles, are prominent donors to AIPAC, and Kushner arranged for Trump to travel to Israel last December to meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other leaders.
Trump canceled the trip after Netanyahu criticized the candidate’s call to keep Muslims from entering the United States. His campaign denied a report Trump reprimanded Kushner for suggesting the visit. — jta
Trump, Kasich to skip Republican Jewish forum
Donald Trump and John Kasich are skipping a Republican Jewish Coalition forum for presidential candidates.
RJC officials said on April 4 that Trump, the real estate magnate and front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination, and Kasich, the Ohio governor who is currently in third place, will not be able to attend the event at the group’s leadership meeting this weekend in Las Vegas.
Both had conflicts, an official said.
That leaves Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, who is running second behind Trump, as the only candidate to address the forum. Cruz will speak to the group the afternoon of Saturday, April 9. — jta
Madoff to be deposed in prison
Bernie Madoff, the convicted Ponzi schemer, will be questioned by lawyers of some former clients who lost money in Madoff’s multibillion-dollar scam.
An April 4 filing requested a formal order on the decision to authorize the deposition of Madoff, made last month by a federal bankruptcy judge, Reuters reported. Madoff, 77, would be deposed at the North Carolina prison where he is serving a 150-year sentence, according to Reuters.
Some former investors caught in the Ponzi scheme believe their claims were undervalued by the court-appointed trustee charged with recovering and returning stolen funds. They believe the deposition could help their cases, according to Reuters.
The questioning of Madoff would be limited to the meaning of more than 91,000 transactions recorded as “profit withdrawal” on the books of the former Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC.
Some $11 billion of the stolen $17 billion has been returned to defrauded investors in the last seven years. — jta