Date saved: 2026-10-27 03:01 (PDT)
Sources: CNN, Vanity Fair, Common Dreams, Reason, Chicago Sun-Times, Alternet, Axios, New York Times, Wall Street Journal
Key findings
The Kushner $2 billion secret accounts
- Vanity Fair / Matthew Cole (October 22, 2026): An exclusive excerpt from "Princes and Thieves: Jared Kushner and Mohammed bin Zayed's Secret Plot to Remake the Middle East" alleges that Dutch military intelligence (MIVD) captured Jared Kushner's iPhone screen from early 2018 and watched him log into a UAE bank account that had taken in hundreds of millions of dollars through a bank in Azerbaijan. The book alleges that UAE leader Mohamed bin Zayed and future Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman "put at least $2 billion into at least two bank accounts for Kushner" at the start of Trump's first term. One account, the "Alpha" account, was opened in First Abu Dhabi Bank and served as a "foreign policy fund." The "Beta" account moved money from Azerbaijan to what appeared to be a government bank account in the Israeli Central Bank, and was set up "for Kushner's personal benefit." Neither account was ever disclosed. A prosecutor who worked on the Mueller investigation told Cole that Kushner "may have violated federal bribery laws." (Source)
- Common Dreams (October 22, 2026): Kushner, son-in-law of US President Donald Trump, for years allegedly had access to at least two secret foreign bank accounts in Israel and the United Arab Emirates whose deposits totaled roughly $2 billion, according to the Vanity Fair excerpt. The article notes that even if Kushner had properly disclosed the accounts, he would still have likely had to register as an agent of a foreign government given that UAE and the Saudis were "paying for his influence within the US government." (Source)
- Common Dreams (October 23, 2026): Kushner called the allegations "completely insane, categorically false, and never happened," and his lawyer threatened to pursue legal action against "those responsible." The lawyer sent Simon & Schuster a 13-page letter challenging "the total absence of supporting evidence" before the book's release. (Source)
Alina Habba and the $50 million DOJ adviser deal
- New York Times / Axios (October 2026): Alina Habba secured a $50 million employment deal with a company that had only recently been set up and does not have a public profile. She finalized the deal even as she was still serving as US attorney in New Jersey, and began the job while serving as a special government employee advising then-Attorney General Pam Bondi. The company's owner, Venezuelan banker Julio Herrera Velutini, received a presidential pardon for a 2025 campaign finance charge. Habba denied any role in the pardon. (Source)
DHS aircraft purchases and other self-dealing
- CNN (October 21, 2026): The Department of Homeland Security bought multiple airplanes from a donor to the outgoing secretary at apparently inflated prices. The former secretary and current secretary have pointed to one another for the purchases. Also this month: a now-former ambassador asked for $100,000 to cover her credit card debt from a man she was helping lobby the administration, and repeatedly urged the man not to leave a paper trail, according to texts obtained by the Wall Street Journal. Her lawyers denied the allegations. (Source)
- Chicago Sun-Times (October 9, 2026): Former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, before she left office, finalized a government purchase of several aging Boeing jets from one of her campaign donors, paying way above market value. There is another ongoing probe of a Noem hire who was reportedly paid $19,000 a week. Corey Lewandowski served as Noem's deputy yet took no salary for nearly two years during a time when he was widely believed to be her romantic partner. (Source)
Trump enrichment and polling
- Alternet (October 2026): Trump has enriched himself by $2.2 billion since his second term started, accepted a luxury jet from Qatar, had his own administration grant him immunity from back-taxes he might owe, filed a trademark for Trump TV even as he supports it with taxpayer money, and used taxpayer dollars to launch campaign advertisements for himself and his Republican Party during the upcoming midterm elections. He has also decided to host the Group of 20 annual summit of world leaders at his private golf club in Miami in December. (Source)
- Reason (October 22, 2026): Trump and his family have enriched themselves in this second term in ways more similar to third-world regimes or Cook County than to any previous administration. He and his family operate a financial company that has received heavy investments from Qatar's government. He has sold access to himself by selling otherwise worthless cryptocurrency. The IRS he controls settled a lawsuit with him, promising to pay him $1.8 billion (this settlement was voided by a judge). (Source)
- Washington Post / ABC News poll (2026): Nearly two-thirds of Americans said Trump was using the presidency to enrich himself. (Source)
The single biggest story of the week is the Vanity Fair excerpt from Matthew Cole's forthcoming book "Princes and Thieves," which alleges that Jared Kushner had access to more than $2 billion in undisclosed Gulf state bank accounts, including an account at Israel's Central Bank overseen by Benjamin Netanyahu, while serving as the Trump administration's senior Middle East envoy. The excerpt, grounded in Dutch and American intelligence sources, alleges that Russian military intelligence hacked Kushner's phone in 2017, and that Dutch intelligence agents subsequently accessed it and watched him log into UAE accounts that had received hundreds of millions of dollars from an Azerbaijani bank. Kushner's lawyer called the allegations "categorically false" and threatened to sue Simon & Schuster before the book's October 27 release. This is not a sidebar to the corruption story. It is the story: a senior U.S. diplomat allegedly trading American foreign policy for secret access to billions of dollars from the rulers of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, with the money routed through Azerbaijan in a structure that one prosecutor told Cole may have violated federal bribery laws.
The week also brought continued coverage of Alina Habba, Trump's former personal defense attorney, landing a $50 million deal with a Venezuelan banker who had just received a presidential pardon, and the ongoing saga of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem's department buying aging Boeing jets from a campaign donor at inflated prices. A Washington Post/ABC News poll showed nearly two-thirds of Americans said Trump was using the presidency to enrich himself. The throughline is clear: the administration has normalized a level of self-enrichment that would have produced daily scandals in any prior presidency, and the political system has largely adapted to it rather than confronted it.
Source links
- Vanity Fair: Jared Kushner's Hacked Phone Revealed His Secret Negotiations
- Common Dreams: Bombshell Book Alleges Jared Kushner's Access to Secret Foreign Bank Accounts
- CNN: Corruption allegations swarm Trump's orbit ahead of midterms
- Reason: The swamp king
- Chicago Sun-Times: Trump: the Picasso of corruption
- Alternet: Trump reboots his most brazen scandal
- YouTube: Steve Schmidt - LIVE: Steve Schmidt has seen every ad ever made. Then this | Oh, Schmidt!
- YouTube: CBS News - Trump's Son in Law Just Got CAUGHT RED HANDED