Kushner denies hacked phone and foreign cash claims

Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump's son-in-law, rejected claims published in a forthcoming book that his iPhone was hacked and that he received billions of dollars from Middle Eastern governments. The allegations appear in an excerpt from Matthew Cole's book, titled "Princes and Thieves: Jared Kushner and Mohamed bin Zayed's Secret Plot to Remake the Middle East." Kushner's legal team called the reporting baseless and issued a detailed denial on Thursday night.

The book asserts that Kushner had access to more than $2 billion in slush money funds from regional leaders. According to the text, these sums were transferred to buy influence within the U.S. government. The authors claim the money was moved through bank accounts that were presented as official government bodies or charities. One specific account was reportedly held at Israel's Central Bank.

The excerpt details how Dutch intelligence agents allegedly discovered the hack in 2017. The report states that the Dutch service learned of the breach after turning a Russian spy. Once they gained access to the device, the agents could see Kushner's screen and captured every image he viewed. The account alleges they 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 Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman placed roughly $1 billion in at least one account. A person with knowledge of the money, cited in the text, said the allocation was for Kushner's personal benefit. The report suggests these off-the-books diplomatic objectives included brokering a deal to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Kushner served as a senior White House adviser during the first Trump administration, where he helped negotiate major foreign policy deals involving Israel, the Gulf states, China, and Russia.

Kushner said the allegations made by the author were completely insane and never happened. He noted that his side denied every claim on the record, yet the author offered no single shred of verifiable evidence. Kushner pointed out that no bank statements, wire transfer records, account numbers, or transaction dates were provided. His attorney described the claims as false and defamatory and said the team plans to pursue legal action against those responsible.

The White House directed CBS News to a statement from Steven Cheung, assistant to the president and White House director of communications. Writing on X, Cheung called the source book complete fiction and said it was fabricated by a failed spy thriller writer. He stated the book presents no evidence or documentation, only mysterious words from unnamed sources. CBS News has not independently verified the excerpt.