Ex-Trump Official Calls for Probe into Kushner Profiting From White House Role: It’s ‘Fair’ to Look into Him

 

Sarah Matthews, who served as deputy press secretary in the Trump administration, conceded during a discussion about Hunter Biden that Jared Kushner also deserves scrutiny for having “profited” from his family connections and possibly his time in the White House.

Matthews made the comments in response to Karen Finney, a Democratic strategist, who dismissed the House GOP probes into Hunter Biden as political theater while on CNN’s The Lead with Jake Tapper Friday.

“And it also feels like this is more about taking innuendo and conspiracy theory and creating clickbait and reasons to raise money and reason to get on Tucker Carlson’s show, not serious investigations into what might have happened,” Finney declared.

“I mean, I think it’s unfair to call it a conspiracy theory when these are legitimate financial records that prove that a large amount of money was paid to members of the Biden family,” shot back Matthews.

“They simply want to know what services were provided then to receive that kind of compensation. And also, I think while it’s fair to, you know, look into Jared Kushner and how he’s profiting post leaving the White House, you know. He was someone who worked in the Trump White House. I think that the question here is, is this a conflict of interest that Biden’s family members were receiving these types of payments when he was in office as vice president?” Matthews added, drawing a parallel between Kushner, Donald Trump’s son-in-law and former advisor, and Hunter Biden.

“And what he knew then when he was vice president, which I will say the laptop appears to prove that he did know some sort of idea of the business dealings, there’s text messages, there’s emails saying and alluding to that he knew. And one of Hunter Biden’s associates came out on record saying that Biden was aware of Hunter’s business dealings,” Matthews concluded while another member of the panel said, “There’s no proof.”

Tapper went on to mention that Trump’s first impeachment trial revealed that while Joe Biden was vice president, some in the State Department were “uncomfortable” with Hunter Biden’s business dealings in Ukraine.

After a bit more back and forth, Tapper then plays a highlight reel of House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY) claiming he has evidence of “influence peddling,” but needs to investigate further to really make the case.

The conversation about Hunter Biden ended with Matthews again responding to Finney, who called for an investigation into the “Trump kids” – who actually worked in the White House – given their overseas dealings.

“I think that should be the standard. I agree. And I think that it is a conflict of interest for members of the family to receive any sort of money from adversaries of ours,” Matthews said, concluding:

I will say, though, it does it is contrary to what President Biden has said when he says on record that he had no idea of Hunter’s business dealings. But in fact, the laptop seems to prove that that might not have been true.

Tapper then moved on to the other big news of the day, which was Trump posting to Facebook for the first time since 2021.

Watch the clip above via CNN.

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Alex Griffing is a Senior Editor at Mediaite. Send tips via email: alexanderg@mediaite.com. Follow him on Twitter: @alexgriffing