Jared Kushner's lawyers prepare to sue author over book claiming he held billions in secret Middle East money

Jared Kushner and his legal team are preparing a lawsuit against a new book that details alleged secret financial ties between the former senior White House adviser and Middle Eastern leaders. The legal action was announced Thursday, the same day an excerpt from the book appeared in Vanity Fair. The publisher is journalist Matthew Cole, whose work is titled Princes and Thieves: Jared Kushner and Mohamed bin Zayed's Secret Plot to Remake the Middle East.

The book asserts that Kushner had access to more than $2 billion in funds from leaders in the region. Cole describes this money as slush funds intended to buy influence within the U.S. government. According to the excerpt, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman placed roughly $1 billion in at least one account. A source with knowledge of the money told Cole that this allocation was for Kushner's personal benefit. The report also claims that Dutch intelligence agents learned in 2017 that Russia had hacked Kushner's iPhone. The Dutch agents reportedly accessed the device after turning a Russian spy, allowing them to watch Kushner log into a United Arab Emirates account linked to a bank in Azerbaijan.

The excerpt focuses on Kushner's years as a senior White House adviser in the first Trump administration. During that period, he took a leading part in U.S. Middle East policy and helped negotiate major foreign policy deals involving Israel, the Gulf states, China, and Russia. The book claims the owners and managers of the financial accounts were often presented as official government bodies or charities. The money was allegedly intended for off-the-books diplomatic objectives, such as brokering a deal to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. CBS News has not independently verified the details in the excerpt.

Kushner and his legal team issued sharp statements Thursday night denying the claims. Kushner called the allegations completely insane and said they never happened. He noted that his side denied every claim on the record, yet the author offered not a single shred of verifiable evidence. Kushner pointed out that no bank statements, wire transfer records, account numbers, or transaction dates were provided.

His attorney described the claims as false and defamatory. The attorney said the team plans to pursue legal action against those responsible, though they did not specify who that would include. The White House also reacted to the publication. Steven Cheung, assistant to the president and White House director of communications, wrote on X that the source book was complete fiction. Cheung described Cole as a failed spy thriller writer and said the book presents no evidence or documentation, only mysterious words from unnamed sources.

The legal dispute highlights the tension between the book's specific claims and the lack of documentary evidence cited by Kushner's team. Cole's book is set to be released in the coming months. The lawsuit is expected to test the credibility of the intelligence-based accounts presented in the excerpt.