A new book by author Matthew Cole making serious claims about Jared Kushner's finances during Donald Trump's first term has set off a political and media storm. Titled "Princes and Thieves: Jared Kushner and Mohamed bin Zayed's Secret Plot to Remake the Middle East," it was released in the United States this week. Vanity Fair published an excerpt last Thursday, and Kushner responded furiously.
Kushner, who is Trump's son-in-law and has served as one of his leading diplomatic envoys in the Middle East, called the claims "completely insane." Writing on X, he said: "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." He has demanded that Vanity Fair retract the excerpt and has threatened legal action against the book's publisher, Simon & Schuster.
He also pointed to the scrutiny he faced earlier. "During the period in question, I was one of the most scrutinized people in the world," he wrote, citing multiple congressional investigations and a special counsel inquiry. He said he cooperated voluntarily and gave more than 30 hours of testimony. "None of these allegations ever surfaced, because none of these events ever happened."
The most explosive claim concerns two alleged "slush fund" accounts. Cole writes that Emirati leader Mohamed bin Zayed and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman proposed in early 2017 to give Kushner a fund for projects and foreign policy goals that would benefit Trump. He alleges that at least $2bn was placed in at least two banks. The book calls them "Alpha" and "Beta." Alpha, held at First Abu Dhabi Bank, allegedly contained roughly $750m, while Beta allegedly held roughly $1bn and was later moved to the Israeli Central Bank via Azerbaijan at the suggestion of Benjamin Netanyahu. Cole also claims Kushner partly managed the accounts on an iPhone hacked by Russian and Dutch intelligence. The Dutch government declined to comment.
Cole relies mostly on anonymous sources and does not reproduce emails or other documents, though extensive footnotes indicate where information came from, including confidential interviews. One source quoted in the book said: "Jared was looking for shortcuts in his diplomacy." The book also quotes the UAE's top intelligence official, Ali Al Shamsi, as calling Kushner "the most expensive employee we've ever had." Cole alleges the Alpha account was drained by failed schemes and that Kushner's access was cut off.
Kushner's lawyers reject the account entirely. Alejandro Brito, an attorney who has represented Trump in defamation cases, told Cole that "there are no accounts and never were," and that any allegation of involvement with government-linked accounts is "totally false and defamatory." Chad Mizelle, a Trump administration lawyer who described himself as "Jared's attorney," wrote on X: "There are no bank accounts. They don't exist." The Guardian contacted Kushner's legal counsel at Clare Locke, as well as Mizelle, and received no response. Saudi and Emirati embassies also did not respond.
The book also revisits Qatari investment in 666 Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, which Kushner has denied involved any conflict of interest. It examines the $2bn Saudi sovereign wealth fund investment in Kushner's firm, Affinity Partners, made after Trump left office in 2021. An unnamed Arab official and Affinity investor is quoted as saying: "We pay him to keep him happy. That keeps his father-in-law happy."
The allegations land as Kushner continues to shape US foreign policy without an official role. This week he is traveling with Steve Witkoff in pursuit of peace in Ukraine, on terms favorable to Russia. Cole writes that Kushner declined multiple requests for an on-the-record interview, after being first contacted with questions in May 2026.
