The Trump Family’s Ever-Expanding Portfolio of Corruption

There’s no specific English term to describe your son or daughter’s father-in-law, but in Spanish, Charles Kushner is the president’s consuegro. He is also America’s ambassador to France. Two decades ago, Kushner père did 14 months’ hard time for illegal campaign contributions, tax evasion, and witness tampering; the latter involved setting up his brother-in-law William Schulder, then ratting out the family business to prosecutors, with a prostitute and then sending a tape of their assignation to his sister. Trump pardoned Charles at the end of his first presidential term.

We haven’t seen any financial scandals emanate from the U.S. Embassy in Paris (just a dustup over some undiplomatic criticisms), but we have from another Trump consuegro, Massad Boulos, who’s the State Department’s senior Africa adviser. Boulos is father-in-law to Tiffany Trump, who, The New York Times reported last month, cruised the French Riviera last July on the superyacht of one Ruya Bayegan at the same time Boulos was negotiating with Libya to increase oil production—a move that would enrich Bayegan’s energy company.

Granted, that was small stuff. But in August, the former prime minister of Guinea told the Times that Boulos told him he was “pursuing work” on the government dime by trying to “put together some investors from the United States and some governments in Africa.” After the Times queried Boulos, the former prime minster got back in touch to abruptly deny even knowing Boulos. Nothing to see here, move along.