Lone Dem Scrambles to Defend Confirming Ivanka's Father-in-Law
New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker has defended breaking with Democrats by voting to confirm Charles Kushner, a convicted felon and father-in-law to Ivanka Trump, as the new U.S. ambassador to France.
Kushner, father to Jared Kushner, who is married to President Donald Trump's eldest daughter, was confirmed in a 51-45 Senate vote Monday to the top diplomatic role. Booker was the sole Democrat who voted to confirm the Trump-backed nominee.
Booker received criticism online for supporting the man whom Trump pardoned in 2020 for tax crimes, especially as the senator was recently viewed as a potential Democratic 2028 presidential candidate having delivered a record-breaking 25-hour speech attacking the president.
In a statement to the Daily Beast, Booker explained that while he has many disagreements with Kushner, a fellow New Jerseyan, he voted to confirm him largely because of his role in helping pass the bipartisan First Step Act.
The landmark bill, signed by Trump in 2018, aimed to reform the federal prison system by giving nonviolent drug offenders the opportunity to reduce their sentences through rehabilitation programs, and by reducing penalties for other drug-related crimes.
'The First Step Act was the result of a broad coalition of advocates—from a bipartisan group of Senators to civil rights leaders, law enforcement, and other groups,' Booker told the Daily Beast.
'One of the most important was Charlie Kushner, whose experience in prison profoundly affected him and led him to become an advocate for needed reforms. Without his efforts, the bill wouldn't have become law.
'I have passionate differences and disagreements with Charlie Kushner, but I supported his confirmation because he has been unrelenting in reforming our criminal justice system and has substantively helped achieve the liberation of thousands of people from unjust incarceration,' Booker added.
Kushner was sentenced to two years in prison in 2005 after pleading guilty to 16 counts of tax fraud, witness retaliation, and making false statements to the Federal Election Commission.
During his plea hearing, Kushner admitted that the witness he sought to retaliate against was his own sister. He had plotted a scheme to have a prostitute seduce her husband and then secretly record them together. Kushner intended to send the videotape to his sister in an apparent blackmail attempt.
Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who helped prosecute Kushner as an attorney, described the case in 2019 as one of the most 'loathsome, disgusting crimes' he had ever worked on.
During his confirmation hearing for the ambassadorship to France role, Kushner admitted he was 'not a perfect person.'
'I made a very, very, very serious mistake, and I paid a very heavy price for that mistake. 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,' he said.
Booker and Kushner's relationship dates back years before they worked together on the First Step Act. The former New Jersey real estate titan helped fund Booker's unsuccessful run for mayor of Newark in 2002.
Trump pardoned Kushner for his felony crimes in December 2020, weeks before the Republican's first term in office came to an end.
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