Trump intends to appoint his son-in-law’s father as US ambassador to France

President-elect Donald Trump said Saturday that he wants real estate developer Charles Kushner, father of Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, to serve as ambassador to France.

Trump made the announcement in a Truth Social post, calling Charles Kushner “a tremendous business leader, philanthropist and dealmaker.”

Kushner is the founder of Kushner Companies, a real estate company. Jared Kushner is a former senior Trump adviser who is married to Trump’s eldest daughter, Ivanka.

Kushner’s father was pardoned by Trump in December 2020 after pleading guilty years earlier to tax evasion and illegal campaign donations.

Prosecutors alleged that after Charles Kushner discovered that his brother-in-law was cooperating with federal authorities in an investigation, he hatched a plan of revenge and intimidation.

Kushner hired a prostitute to lure his brother-in-law, then arranged for the encounter in a New Jersey motel room to be recorded on a hidden camera and the recording to be sent to his own sister, the man’s wife, prosecutors said.

Kushner ultimately pleaded guilty to 18 charges, including tax evasion and witness tampering.

He was sentenced in 2005 to two years in prison, the most he could receive under a plea deal, but less than what Chris Christie, New Jersey’s federal prosecutor at the time and later governor and Republican presidential candidate, had asked for.

Christie blamed Jared Kushner for his dismissal from the Trump transition team in 2016, calling Charles Kushner’s crimes “one of the most disgusting and repugnant crimes I prosecuted when I was a federal prosecutor.”

Trump and Kushner Sr. knew each other from real estate circles and their children married in 2009.