Acknowledging ‘very serious mistake,’ Charles Kushner greenlit for ambassadorship by Senate committee

Charles Kushner – a New Jersey real estate titan whose conviction on federal charges in 2005 became an enduring New Jersey political scandal and helped facilitate Chris Christie’s rise to prominence – is one step closer to a U.S. ambassadorship.

Kushner, who is also the father of President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, was approved by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee today to be U.S. Ambassador to France and Monaco after being nominated by Trump for the role last year. He and several other ambassador nominees cleared the committee on a 12-0 vote, with only Republicans in attendance.

(Every Democrat on the committee, among them Senator Cory Booker, skipped the meeting; Senator Jeanne Shaheen, the committee’s ranking Democrat, said that her party chose en masse not to attend because Republicans did not adhere to “long-standing rules and traditions to keep the Minority properly informed” regarding the committee’s timeline for nominations.)

The son of Holocaust survivors, Kushner was raised in Elizabeth, New Jersey and founded Kushner Companies, a vast real estate enterprise that has made his family worth billions. At a Foreign Relations Committee hearing last week, Kushner said that his parents’ horrific experience and his own private-sector acumen make him a good fit for the ambassadorship to the United States’ oldest ally.

“I do not know much about French art and wine, but I do understand business,” Kushner said.

Kushner was also a major political force in New Jersey and the nation for many years through his generosity with donations – in support of Democrats, not Republicans. Among his notable beneficiaries was former Gov. Jim McGreevey, who appointed Kushner to be a commissioner on the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

Those donations got him into legal trouble in the early 2000s, when prosecutors began investigating whether Kushner had donated some money improperly; Kushner added a far more sensational angle to the case when he hired a prostitute to seduce his brother-in-law in retaliation for his cooperation with federal authorities. Kushner was ultimately sentenced to two years in prison in a case that Christie, then the U.S. Attorney and four years away from becoming governor of New Jersey, later called “one of the most loathsome, disgusting crimes” he had prosecuted.

Fifteen years later, Kushner was pardoned by Trump, with whom he has had close familial ties since his son Jared married Ivanka Trump in 2009. Asked at last week’s hearing by Shaheen about his past indiscretions, Kushner admitted to making errors in judgment but said that he has worked to make up for them in the two decades since.

“I don’t sit here before you today and tell you I’m a perfect person,” he said. “I am not a perfect person. I made a very, very, very serious mistake, and I paid a very heavy price for that mistake… I think that my past mistakes actually make me better with my judgment, better in my view of life, better in my values to really make me more qualified to do this job.”

But most questions during the hearing, from both Democratic and Republican senators, focused on other, less sordid topics like defense spending, trade, and deterrence of France’s and America’s mutual enemies. Kushner said that he has three main goals for his ambassadorship: encourage France to increase its share of defense spending, push for new trade deals with the United States, and strengthen French educational programs on the Holocaust.

“I believe that by fostering a more balanced trade relationship, pressing for more French defense investment and spending, and promoting historical education, we can create a more secure and prosperous future for both our nations,” he said.

And several senators also brought up the Kushner family’s involvement in the First Step Act, a bipartisan criminal justice reform bill signed during Trump’s first term that was a key legislative priority for Booker. Booker was not present for the hearing at which Kushner testified, but his words were quoted by Pennsylvania Republican Dave McCormick.

“‘I can unequivocally say that without Charlie Kushner, we would have not passed the bipartisan First Step Act, which led to the liberation of thousands of Americans from unjust incarceration and unjustifiably long prison sentences,’” McCormick said, quoting Booker. “‘His work has helped us to reform the criminal justice system, save millions in taxpayer dollars, and help nonviolent offenders have a second chance in life.’”

Booker’s relationship with Kushner goes back much further than the First Step Act, though. Kushner was a major supporter of Booker’s first much-ballyhooed run for mayor of Newark in 2002, and when Kushner’s legal troubles began, Booker submitted a letter to the court on his behalf: “Charlie has helped fuel my hope, as well as made me believe that even in the questionable world of New Jersey politics, there are still spirits who don’t simply act in their self-interest,” Booker wrote.

Kushner’s nomination was originally supposed to come up earlier in this year’s legislative calendar, Shaheen said, but was pushed back due to a delay in Kushner’s financial disclosure report, likely a massive document given his wealth. There’s no set date yet for when the full Senate will vote to confirm Kushner, though prior nominees this year have typically come up for a vote a few weeks after they’ve been approved in committee.

This story was updated at 12:40 p.m. with a statement from Shaheen on why Democrats chose to skip the meeting.