AUGUST 7, 2018
White House senior adviser Jared Kushner ordered the removal of stories in the New York Observer about his friends and peers when he owned the paper,
Kushner, President Trump’s son-in-law, in 2012 had editors at the newspaper delete “a handful of articles,” according to Buzzfeed, citing emails obtained during its reporting.
The Buzzfeed report lists three articles that Kushner ordered editors to remove: a 2010 story detailing a settlement between real estate firm Vantage Properties and then-New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo; a 2010 piece about Vantage executive Neil Rubler appearing on a “10 worst landlords” list; and a 2012 article regarding NBA commissioner Adam Silver buying a New York City apartment for $6.75 million.
Kushner is reportedly friends with Silver. The Buzzfeed report notes that Silver complimented Kushner in a 2016 New Yorker story on Kushner and Ivanka Trump, Kushner’s wife. , Silver said Kushner was the NBA’s “unofficial, unpaid adviser” when the league was looking for space for a retail store.
Austin Smith, who reportedly worked for the Observer as a software employee, told Buzzfeed that he carried out Kushner’s removal requests.
Elizabeth Spiers, the former editor of the Observer, told Buzzfeed she wasn’t aware Kushner had ordered stories to be removed but added that if she had known, “Jared and I would have had a big problem.”
Kushner, who had owned the Observer since 2006, stepped down as publisher of the newspaper in January to become a senior adviser to Trump.
Courtesy/Source: The Hill
