Kushner Team Threatens Suit Over Book

Jared Kushner’s legal team is preparing a lawsuit against journalist Matthew Cole following the publication of an excerpt from his upcoming book. The piece, published in Vanity Fair on Thursday, details a complex web of alleged financial transfers and intelligence operations involving Kushner and Middle Eastern leaders. Kushner and his representatives have rejected the findings as baseless and factually incorrect.

The conflict centers on a specific allegation from 2017. According to the text, Dutch intelligence agents discovered that Russian spies had hacked Kushner’s iPhone. The Dutch service reportedly gained access to the device after turning a Russian operative. Once connected, the agents could view Kushner’s screen and capture every image he saw. They claim to have watched him log into a United Arab Emirates account that had received hundreds of millions of dollars from an Azerbaijani bank.

The book, titled “Princes and Thieves: Jared Kushner and Mohamed bin Zayed’s Secret Plot to Remake the Middle East,” asserts that Kushner had access to more than $2 billion in “slush money funds.” These funds, allegedly provided by leaders in Saudi Arabia and the UAE, were meant to buy influence within the U.S. government. The text specifies that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman placed roughly $1 billion in at least one of these accounts. A source with knowledge of the money told the author the allocation was for Kushner’s personal benefit. The book also claims one account was held at Israel's Central Bank.

The authors describe the account owners as official government bodies or charities. However, the text argues the money was actually intended for “off-the-books diplomatic objectives,” including efforts to broker a deal to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Kushner served as a senior White House adviser during the first Trump administration, where he led U.S. Middle East policy and negotiated deals involving Israel, the Gulf states, China, and Russia.

Kushner issued a statement on Thursday night calling the allegations “completely insane.” He said his team denied every claim on the record, noting that the author provided no bank statements, wire transfer records, account numbers, or transaction dates. His attorney described the claims as “false and defamatory” and stated they plan to pursue legal action against those responsible, though the exact parties were not named.

The White House also responded through Steven Cheung, assistant to the president and White House director of communications. Writing on X, Cheung called the book “complete fiction” and attributed it to a “failed spy thriller writer.” He said the publication offers no evidence or documentation, relying instead on “mysterious words from unnamed sources.”

The full book is scheduled for release in the coming months. Kushner’s legal team has not yet filed the lawsuit, but they indicated that legal proceedings are imminent. CBS News has not independently verified the claims made in the Vanity Fair excerpt.