Sister of Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner pitches visas to Chinese businesspeople in return for investment in New Jersey property development

Developments on Day 107 of the Trump Administration:

Kushner Family Offering Visas to Chinese Business…In Return for $500,000 Investment

Relatives of Jared Kushner, Donald Trump’s son-in-law and senior advisor, are offering visas to Chinese businesspeople in return for investment of at least $500,000 in Kushner family project.

In Beijing on Saturday, Nicole Kushner Meyer, Jared Kushner’s sister, promoted a Kushner-owned property in New Jersey with the promise of an EB-5 visa in return for investment in a $976.4 million residential and commercial project in New Jersey

The EB-5 visa allows immigrants a path to a green card if they invest the required amount.

An ad for the Kushner event, held at a Ritz-Carlton hotel, was blunt: “Invest $500,000 and Immigrate to the United States”.

Potential investors were told at the event that they should act quickly because of possible changes to the EB-5 program. Some legislators had criticized the arrangement as allowing high-income foreigners to buy their way into the US.

Nicole Kushner Meyer mentioned her brother’s position in the White House, although there were no overt references to Trump.

Jared Kushner’s attorney, Blake Roberts, said his client is not involved in the operation of Kushner Companies and divested his interests in the Journal Square project by selling them to a family trust of which he, his wife and his children are not beneficiaries.

“As previously stated, he will recuse from particular matters concerning the EB-5 visa program,” Roberts said.

However, the event in China is just the latest episode to raise questions about intersections between the Trump Administration and ongoing Trump and Kushner business interests. On the same day that Donald Trump hosted Chinese President Xi Jinping earlier this month, Beijing granted preliminary approval for three new trademarks for Ivanka Trump’s brand of jewellery, bags, and spa services.

Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump have a worth of about $741 million, according to documents filed by the White House in late March.

TOP PHOTO: Nicole Kushner Meyer (right), Jared Kushner’s sister, with her husband Joseph Meyer and her sister-in-law Ivanka Trump

Eric Trump: “We Have All the Funding We Need Out of Russia”

An extract from an interview with author James Dodson about his day on the golf course with Donald Trump in 2014:

When I first met him, I asked him how he was — you know, this is the journalist in me — I said, “What are you using to pay for these [golf] courses?” And he just sort of tossed off that he had access to $100 million.

So when I got in the cart with [Trump’s son] Eric, as we were setting off, I said, “Eric, who’s funding? I know no banks — because of the recession, the Great Recession — have touched a golf course. You know, no one’s funding any kind of golf construction. It’s dead in the water the last four or five years.”

And this is what he said. He said, “Well, we don’t rely on American banks. We have all the funding we need out of Russia.”

I said, “Really?” And he said, “Oh, yeah. We’ve got some guys that really, really love golf, and they’re really invested in our programs. We just go there all the time.”