Former Obama adviser Ben Rhodes accused Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner of "unprecedented" corruption in his dealings with Gulf Arab states as President Biden comes under similar scrutiny for influence peddling abroad.
Since leaving the Trump White House, Kushner has launched a private equity firm that gets most of its money from the sovereign wealth fund of Saudi Arabia, a country that Kushner worked closely with while working as a top adviser for Trump.
Rhodes accused Kushner of engaging in pay-to-play politics and “corruption that we’ve just never seen” during an interview with MSNBC's Alex Wagner.
Rhodes alleged that Kushner, who helped broker a peace deal in the Middle East, "chose" to work with Arab states expecting a payoff later on.
“He chose to work on issues in the Middle East, and he chose to work with the Gulf Arab states, knowing that the payout would be on the back end,” he said.
The Saudis are making an "investment" in case Kushner's father-in-law wins the presidency back, Rhodes said, alleging Kushner engaged in a level of corruption "never seen before."
“This is just putting a price tag on American foreign policy,” Rhodes said. “This is a level of corruption that we’ve just never seen, and it’s hiding in plain sight.”
It isn't just Democrats who have criticized Kushner. The lead Hunter Biden investigator in the House, Republican James Comer (Ky.), said Kushner "crossed the line" by accepting a $2 billion investment from the Saudis.
Kushner addressed criticism during a talk with Axios in February.
“If you ask me about the work that that we did in the White House, for my critics, what I say is point to a single decision we made that wasn’t in the interest of America,” Kushner said.
Rhodes contrasted Kushner's dealings with Hunter Biden's business deals and claimed Republicans have found no evidence that Hunter leveraged his family connections for profit.
"There is literally an impeachment inquiry going on now in search of a rationale that doesn't exist, that Hunter Biden somehow used his connection to his father to profit when Joe Biden was vice president," Rhodes said.
Hunter Biden's former business partners have told Congress that the Biden name was "the brand" behind Hunter's international dealings, which earned him millions of dollars in countries like China and Ukraine, nations Joe Biden dealt with in the course of his vice presidency.
