Kushner Law Team Prepares Suit Over Book

Jared Kushner’s legal team said Thursday night that it plans to pursue legal action against the author of an upcoming book alleging hidden billions in Gulf state funds and a compromised iPhone. Kushner, the son-in-law of President Trump, issued a statement calling the claims “completely insane” and insisting that his side denied every allegation on the record. He noted that the author provided no bank statements, wire transfer records, account numbers, or transaction dates to support the narrative.

The book, titled “Princes and Thieves: Jared Kushner and Mohamed bin Zayed’s Secret Plot to Remake the Middle East,” is written by journalist Matthew Cole. An excerpt published in Vanity Fair describes Kushner’s tenure as a senior White House adviser during the first Trump administration. It claims he helped negotiate major foreign policy deals involving Israel, the Gulf states, China, and Russia while managing access to more than $2 billion in “slush money funds” from regional leaders. The text asserts these funds were intended to buy influence within the U.S. government.

The excerpt details how Dutch intelligence agents allegedly discovered in 2017 that Russia had hacked Kushner’s iPhone. The report says the Dutch learned this after turning a Russian spy and then accessed the device themselves. It states that agents could see Kushner’s screen and captured every image he viewed. The account alleges the spies watched him log into a United Arab Emirates account that had received hundreds of millions of dollars from a bank in Azerbaijan.

The book further claims that the leaders of Saudi Arabia and the UAE placed at least $2 billion into several bank accounts tied to Kushner. One of these accounts was reportedly held at Israel’s Central Bank. The report says the owners and managers of those accounts were often presented as official government bodies or charities, but the money was actually intended for off-the-books diplomatic objectives. These objectives included brokering a deal to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The excerpt cites a person with knowledge of the money who said Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman placed roughly $1 billion in at least one account for Kushner’s personal benefit.

Kushner’s attorney described the claims as false and defamatory, saying the team intends to sue those responsible, though the attorney did not specify who would be included in the lawsuit. The White House directed questions to Steven Cheung, assistant to the president and White House director of communications. Writing on X, Cheung called the book complete fiction and said it was fabricated by a failed spy thriller writer. He argued the book presents no evidence or documentation, relying only on mysterious words from unnamed sources. CBS News has not independently verified the excerpt.

The legal push comes as the book prepares for a wider release. Kushner’s team has formally rejected the central assertions regarding the hacked phone and the multi-billion dollar fund structure. The author has not yet responded publicly to the legal threat or the specific denials issued Thursday night. The White House statement emphasized that the book lacks the documentation typically required to support such detailed financial and security claims.