FBI ‘warned’ Jared Kushner about Wendi Deng Murdoch

Jared Kushner was warned by US spies in early 2017 that Wendi Deng Murdoch might use her friendship with him and his wife, Ivanka Trump, to “help China”, it has been claimed.

The report about Rupert Murdoch’s ex-wife - published in Murdoch-owned newspaper The Wall Street Journal - says US officials feared the Chinese-American businesswoman “might seek to help the Chinese government” using her US political connections.

Concern reportedly focused on her lobbying for a Beijing-funded $100m garden project for the National Arboretum in Washington DC, which could have posed a security risk because the design includes a tall tower that could be used for surveillance.

The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

At a Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs briefing today, a spokesperson failed to answer a question about Deng Murdoch, instead saying “certain people in the US should stop creating problems when none exists”, CNN reports.

The White House described Kushner’s meeting with US security as “routine” and said none of the people involved had been accused of wrongdoing.

Deng Murdoch, who holds an MBA from Yale, also counts former UK PM Tony Blair among her political contacts, says Vanity Fair.