Kushner Lawyers Threaten Suit Over Book Alleging $2B in Secret Gulf Funds

Jared Kushner’s legal team moved Thursday to challenge a forthcoming book that claims he controlled more than $2 billion in secret funds from Middle Eastern leaders. The allegations appear in "Princes and Thieves: Jared Kushner and Mohamed bin Zayed's Secret Plot to Remake the Middle East" by journalist Matthew Cole. Kushner’s representatives called the claims baseless and said they intend to pursue legal action against those responsible.

The book asserts that Kushner received access to "slush money funds" from regional governments. These transfers were allegedly intended to buy influence within the U.S. government. The excerpt published in Vanity Fair states that leaders in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates placed at least $2 billion into bank accounts tied to Kushner. One of these accounts was reportedly held at Israel's Central Bank.

The report details a specific intelligence operation involving Dutch and Russian agencies. It claims Dutch agents learned in 2017 that Russia had hacked Kushner’s iPhone. After turning a Russian spy, the Dutch service allegedly gained access to the device. The excerpt says the agents could see Kushner’s screen and capture every image he viewed. They reportedly watched him log into a UAE account that had received hundreds of millions of dollars from a bank in Azerbaijan.

Kushner and his legal team issued statements Thursday night denying the account. Kushner said the allegations were "completely insane and never happened." He noted that his side denied every claim on the record, yet the author provided no verifiable evidence. He pointed out that the book included no bank statements, wire transfer records, account numbers, or transaction dates.

His attorney described the claims as "false and defamatory" and confirmed plans for legal action. The legal team did not specify who the lawsuit would target. The book also claims that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman placed roughly $1 billion in at least one account. A source with knowledge of the money told Cole that the allocation was for Kushner’s personal benefit.

The White House directed reporters to a statement from Steven Cheung, assistant to the president and White House director of communications. Cheung wrote on X that the book was "complete fiction." He described the author as a "failed spy thriller writer" who presented no documentation. Cheung said the work relied only on "mysterious words from unnamed sources."

The Vanity Fair excerpt covers Kushner’s tenure as a senior White House adviser in the first Trump administration. In that role, he helped negotiate major foreign policy deals involving Israel, the Gulf states, China, and Russia. The book argues that the funds were used for off-the-books diplomatic objectives, such as brokering a deal to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.