Kushner Denies Book Excerpt Alleging Dutch Spies Watched Him Access Secret UAE Account

Jared Kushner is denying a sweeping set of allegations from a Vanity Fair excerpt of Princes and Thieves: Jared Kushner and Mohamed bin Zayed's Secret Plot to Remake the Middle East, a forthcoming book by investigative journalist Matthew Cole. The excerpt was released Thursday.

The allegations have not been established as findings of wrongdoing. They rest on Cole's sources, many of them anonymous, and the excerpt does not publish account statements. CBS News said it has not independently verified the excerpt.

What the excerpt alleges

Cole writes that the Dutch military intelligence service, the MIVD, learned a Russian GRU operative was traveling to the UK on an espionage mission. The Dutch, with British agreement, confronted him on arrival and gave him a choice: work for them or face espionage charges in Britain. Cole says he switched sides.

That operative then gave the Dutch access to a GRU server in Rostov, Russia. On it, Cole writes, were screenshots from Kushner's iPhone X. Sources differ on when the Dutch made this discovery: Vanity Fair's excerpt places it in late 2017, while Cybernews reports late 2018.

The Dutch team reverse-engineered the Russian intrusion and, by early 2018, had its own way in, according to the excerpt. It was not full control. Cole says the exploit gave them no microphone or camera access, only a feed of what appeared on Kushner's screen when he used the phone.

What the Dutch allegedly saw was Kushner logging into a UAE bank account that had received hundreds of millions of dollars from a bank in Azerbaijan. Cole writes that roughly $750 million was transferred into the account beginning in 2017, and that Kushner was a signatory, not the owner. The account belonged to the Watani Al Emarat Foundation, a government-funded Emirati charity, and was used as a foreign-policy fund for "off-the-books diplomatic objectives," per the excerpt.

Cole also writes that a confidential source told him the charity was used to fund the UAE government's covert intelligence operations overseas and its secret weapons-purchasing programs. In his opening, Cole says an early source claimed Kushner transferred money from the account to other individuals, including a warlord, a mercenary and a one-time hit man. Cole presents that as something he was told, not something he documents.

The second account

A second account sits at the center of the more personal allegation. Cole writes that roughly $1 billion went into an account at Israel's Central Bank by spring 2018, intended for Kushner's personal benefit. He writes that UAE President Mohamed bin Zayed arranged the transfer and that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu encouraged Kushner to have the money deposited in Israel.

The money was reportedly hard to access. Cole says Kushner routed release requests to Netanyahu through then-U.S. Ambassador David Friedman.

Four senior Trump administration officials, including two national security advisers, a White House chief of staff and a former CIA director, told Cole they were not aware that the president had authorized Kushner to access a foreign government's bank account, according to the reporting.

The denials

Kushner answered Thursday on X. "The allegations made by this author are completely insane and never happened," he wrote. He called them "outrageous fabrications being presented as investigative journalism."

"We denied every one of these claims on the record, yet the author failed to provide a single shred of evidence to substantiate any of them," Kushner said. He noted the excerpt contains no bank statements, wire-transfer records, account numbers or transaction dates.

He also pointed to the scrutiny he faced during the period in question: media coverage, congressional investigations and a special counsel investigation. He said he voluntarily cooperated and gave more than 30 hours of testimony. "None of these allegations ever surfaced, because none of these events ever happened," he wrote.

Kushner's lawyer denied that his client had any knowledge of the charity or the account, and said Kushner did not make any arrangements with foreign leaders that the president did not agree to. Attorney Chad Mizelle called the central allegation "categorically false," said his legal team had sent Simon & Schuster a 13-page letter denying the allegations before publication, and said the team intends to pursue legal action against those responsible.

Friedman rejected his part in the story. "I know absolutely nothing about any of these allegations," he said, calling the specific allegations about him "100% false."

The White House also pushed back. Communications Director Steven Cheung said the article comes from a book that is "complete fiction" and that it presents no evidence, "just mysterious words from unnamed sources." Principal deputy press secretary Anna Kelly accused the outlet of having "zero evidence."

What is on the record and what is not

The documented backdrop is not in dispute. Kushner served as a senior White House adviser in Trump's first term, including a lead role in Middle East policy. In the second Trump administration he has again taken part in high-level diplomatic efforts as an envoy, and he runs the private equity firm Affinity Partners, which has received investments from Middle Eastern investors. The Gulf relationships at the center of the story are real and public.

The specific claims are another matter. The Dutch surveillance, the Rostov server, the accounts and the sums all come from Cole and his sources. Cole says he first heard the story from a source in late spring 2020 and spent four years learning more. No Dutch, British or Russian government has been quoted confirming any of it. No charge or investigation tied to these allegations has been announced.

Summaries of the excerpt also render some details differently. Cybernews places the UAE account at First Abu Dhabi Bank while describing it as Dubai-based, and The New Republic says it was held at First Dubai Bank; Vanity Fair's excerpt says First Abu Dhabi Bank. CBS News reports the Israeli account money as coming from Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, while other accounts say Mohamed bin Zayed arranged it. Documents would settle such discrepancies quickly, and none have been produced.

Cybernews notes that Kushner was allegedly using a personal phone rather than a secure government device. The Kushner statements quoted so far do not address that point.

What comes next

The full book has not yet been released. Whether it includes bank records, wire data or on-the-record confirmation from any intelligence official remains to be seen. Journalist Kim Zetter has noted that if Kushner sues Cole and his publisher for defamation, discovery would require disclosure of his bank statements, money transfers and correspondence, and he would have to sit for a deposition. House Oversight Committee Democrats have said Kushner needs to "answer these questions before the American people." Until documents emerge, this remains a set of serious allegations from one author and unnamed sources against a man who flatly denies all of it.