Date saved: 2026-10-25 09:56 (PDT)
Sources: Vanity Fair, CBS News, Forbes, The Times of Israel, Mediaite
Key findings
The phone: a flipped GRU spy put a Dutch intelligence service inside Kushner's iPhone
- Vanity Fair (October 22, 2026): Cole reports that in late 2017 the Netherlands Defense Intelligence and Security Service got permission from the British to detain a GRU operative travelling to the UK on an espionage mission, and the operative chose to work for them instead of facing espionage charges in a British prison. That asset gave the Dutch access to a GRU server in Rostov, Russia, where they found screenshots of Jared Kushner's iPhone. The Dutch then began capturing his screen as he used it and watched him log into an account at First Abu Dhabi Bank that had received roughly $750 million routed from a bank in Azerbaijan. (Source)
- Vanity Fair (October 22, 2026): The account, called Alpha in the excerpt, belonged to the Watani Al Emarat Foundation, a UAE government-funded charity run by a friend of MBZ that Cole describes as cover for the country's secret weapons purchasing programs. MBZ and MBS made Kushner a signatory, which gave him access to the money without owning the account, and Cole writes that money moved out of the Dubai account to individuals including a warlord, a mercenary and a one-time hit man. (Source)
The money: $2 billion, two accounts, and a central bank
- The Times of Israel (October 22, 2026): Cole writes that MBZ and MBS together put at least $2 billion into at least two accounts for Kushner and that MBZ alone kept funding them afterward. A second account, called Beta, took roughly $1 billion routed through Azerbaijan into Israel's central bank by spring 2018, with Netanyahu encouraging Kushner to deposit it in what would look like a government account. The Times of Israel also reports that former US ambassador to Israel David Friedman, who reportedly helped facilitate the arrangement, denied the allegations alongside Kushner. (Source)
- Vanity Fair (October 22, 2026): Kushner's post was unpaid but his status was that of an official government employee: the excerpt says his annual Executive Branch Personnel Public Financial Disclosure Report required him to list any bank account where he held signatory or beneficiary access, and neither the Alpha nor the Beta account was on it. One former prosecutor who worked on the Mueller investigation told Cole that if Kushner promised anything to MBZ and MBS in return for the money, even just speaking to his father-in-law, he may have violated federal bribery law as well as the foreign agent statute. Kushner's lawyer denied that he violated any law while serving in the White House. (Source)
The denials: total, on the record, and aimed at a courtroom
- Forbes (October 23, 2026): Kushner called the reporting "outrageous and categorically false" and "a mixture of fantasy, fiction, and advocacy", and said the author produced no bank statements, wire transfer records, account numbers or transaction dates. His attorney Chad Mizelle said the legal team sent publisher Simon & Schuster a 13-page letter disputing the claims before publication and intends to pursue legal action, and asked what independent verification Vanity Fair did. Trump told reporters outside the White House it was "a totally false story" and "just fake news". (Source)
- CBS News (October 23, 2026): CBS News aired the report with correspondent Nicole Sganga and stated on air that the excerpt was published in Vanity Fair but not independently verified by CBS News, carrying Kushner and his legal team's denials next to the allegations rather than treating them as established. (Source)
- Mediaite (October 23, 2026): The Jerusalem Post removed its own report on the excerpt Friday morning, saying it had found "significant factual questions", which prompted Mizelle to post that every publisher repeating the claims should demand the same documentation first. Axios's Barak Ravid argued that assembling such an account inside the Bank of Israel does not hold up given how those accounts are monitored, and Wired's Noah Schachtman called the story "bananas". (Source)
The most serious corruption allegation to hit this administration in weeks did not come from an inspector general, a congressional committee or a disclosure form. It came from a hacked iPhone, a Russian military intelligence server in Rostov, and a Dutch intelligence service that turned a GRU operative into an asset and watched the president's son-in-law log into a bank account. Matthew Cole's excerpt from "Princes and Thieves" puts a number on what that phone showed: at least $2 billion moved into accounts Jared Kushner could reach while he sat in the White House shaping the same Middle East policy the money was meant to buy, and none of it appears on the financial disclosure forms he was required to file.
This is the same transaction the rest of the month's corruption reporting describes, only with the middleman cut out. Alina Habba sold access to a pardon. Kimberly Guilfoyle solicited a donor to pay her credit card bill ahead of a confirmation hearing. Here the sellers are the governments of Saudi Arabia and the UAE, and what they bought was influence over a special envoy: roughly $750 million parked in an account held by a charity that also moves money for the Emiratis' secret wars, and roughly $1 billion routed through Azerbaijan into Israel's central bank while Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu encouraged the deposit.
The denials are total and the underlying records are not public, which is exactly why the next three weeks matter. The book publishes on October 27. Kushner's lawyer has promised legal action, which would drag account records and sourcing in front of a court instead of a book tour. Watch for whether any outlet independently confirms the accounts, whether Congress asks to see the 278e forms, and whether the book produces documents rather than more sourcing.
Source links
- Vanity Fair: The Art of the Deal, Jared Kushner's Hacked Phone Revealed His Secret Negotiations (Including More Than $700 Million in Transfers)
- CBS News: Kushner lashes out at phone hack report
- Forbes: Trump Blasts Vanity Fair Over Fake News On Jared Kushner's Alleged Undisclosed Foreign Bank Accounts
- The Times of Israel: Kushner had secret fund with billions from UAE, Saudis; PM helped, report
- Mediaite: Political World Piles on Vanity Fair's Bombshell Jared Kushner Report
- CBS Mornings: Jared Kushner phone hack found billions in secret UAE fund, report claims
- CBS News: Jared Kushner reacts to stunning allegations about phone hack, spies and Middle East money transfers