Trump wants Charles Kushner, father of son-in-law Jared, to become US ambassador to France

US President-elect Donald Trump said on Saturday he wants real estate developer Charles Kushner, the father of Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, to become ambassador to France.

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

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

The elder Kushner was pardoned by Trump in December 2020 after pleading guilty to tax evasion and illegal campaign contributions several years earlier.

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

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

Kushner ultimately pleaded guilty to 18 counts, including tax evasion and witness tampering. In 2005, he was sentenced to two years in prison, the maximum he could have received under a plea deal, but less than what Chris Christie, then the U.S. attorney for New Jersey and later governor and Republican presidential candidate, had sought.

Christie blamed Jared Kushner for his ouster from Trump’s transition team in 2016 and called Charles Kushner’s crimes “one of the most heinous and heinous crimes I prosecuted when I was U.S. Attorney.”

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