Cory Booker Votes To Confirm Jared Kushner’s Felon Dad as Ambassador to France

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Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) voted with Republicans on Monday to confirm Jared Kushner’s father Charles Kushner, a convicted felon, as U.S. ambassador to France.

Kushner was confirmed 51-45 in the Senate, with Booker the only Democrat to vote with Republicans in support of Kushner.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), meanwhile, voted with Democrats against Kushner’s confirmation.

President Donald Trump first announced his intention to nominate Kushner as ambassador to France in November, calling him “a tremendous business leader, philanthropist, & dealmaker, who will be a strong advocate representing our Country & its interests.”

Trump pardoned Kushner, the father of his son-in-law Jared Kushner, at the end of his first term in the White House in 2020.

Kushner was sentenced to two years in prison in 2004 after pleading guilty to tax evasion, witness tampering, and making illegal campaign contributions to the Democratic Party.

As the Department of Justice reported at the time:

Kushner further admitted at his plea hearing that he devised a scheme to retaliate against a cooperating witness – his sister – and her husband by having a prostitute seduce the husband and covertly filming them having sex. Kushner admitted that he paid a private investigator $25,000 to arrange for the seduction and videotaping of the cooperating witness’ husband. Kushner admitted to personally recruiting the prostitute and instructing that the videotape be mailed to the cooperating witness.

Former New Jersey Governor and Republican presidential candidate Chris Christie – who investigated Kushner as U.S. attorney for the district of New Jersey – described his crimes as “one of the most loathsome” and “disgusting” he had ever seen.

“I don’t sit here before you today and tell you I’m a perfect person… I am not a perfect person,” said Kushner during his confirmation hearing. “I made a very, very, very serious mistake, and I paid a very heavy price for that mistake.”

He went on to argue, “I think that my past mistakes actually make me better with my judgment, better in my view of life, better in my values to really make me more qualified to do this job.”