Trump wants Charles Kushner, son-in-law Jared’s father, to be the US ambassador to France

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

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

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

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

Prosecutors allege that after Charles Kushner learned that his brother-in-law was cooperating with federal authorities in the investigation, he plotted revenge and intimidation.

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

Kushner eventually pleaded guilty to 18 charges, including tax evasion and witness tampering. He was sentenced in 2005 to two years in prison — the most he could have received under a plea deal but less than what Chris Christie, the U.S. attorney from New Jersey at the time and later governor and Republican presidential candidate, wanted.

Christie blamed Jared Kushner for his dismissal from Trump’s transition team in 2016, and called Charles Kushner’s charges “one of the most despicable, despicable cases I prosecuted while I was a US attorney.”

Trump and the elder Kushner met in real estate circles, and their children married in 2009.