Kushner Denies Vanity Fair Excerpt Alleging Phone Hack and $2 Billion in Gulf-Funded Accounts

Jared Kushner, President Trump's son-in-law, on Thursday denied allegations in a Vanity Fair excerpt from journalist Matthew Cole's upcoming book that he had access to more than $2 billion in undisclosed Middle Eastern funds. The book, "Princes and Thieves: Jared Kushner and Mohamed bin Zayed's Secret Plot to Remake the Middle East," claims the money came from leaders of the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia to buy influence in U.S. policy during Kushner's time as a senior White House adviser. The excerpt says Russian military intelligence hacked Kushner's phone sometime between 2017 and 2018. It says Dutch intelligence had British authorities detain a Russian operative, who then gave the Dutch access to a server holding screenshots of Kushner's iPhone. The excerpt describes "Alpha" and "Beta" accounts, with $750 million allegedly moved into Alpha at the UAE's largest bank. Kushner wrote on X that the claims were insane and never happened. His lawyer, Chad Mizelle, called them false and defamatory, said a 13-page letter had been sent to Simon & Schuster before publication, and threatened legal action. CBS News said it had not independently verified the excerpt.

Right-leaning Daily Caller leads with the hack and the alleged $2 billion, and its headline puts the phone breach first. It details the Russian, Dutch and British roles and the account structure, and its opening shows no Kushner response. Left-leaning CBS News and The New Republic lead with his pushback. CBS stresses the denials, the unspecified legal threat and its lack of verification. The New Republic's headline calls the report damning and says Kushner threatened to sue Vanity Fair. It quotes his attacks on the author and Mizelle's questions about Vanity Fair's verification. Both sides describe the same book, excerpt and $2 billion figure. They differ in whether the allegations or the denials come first. Alternative and independent outlets had not reported the story at the time of writing, while left-leaning and right-leaning outlets had.