By Bernard Condon / Associated Press
NEW YORK — Ivanka Trump took in nearly $4 million in revenue last year from her stake in President Donald Trump’s Washington hotel, up slightly from a year earlier, according to her financial disclosure released Friday.
The report also shows that a trust that holds her fashion line of handbags, shoes and dresses and other assets generated at least $1 million in revenue in 2018, down from at least $5 million the year before. Ivanka Trump announced in July of last year that she planned to close her fashion company to focus on her work as a White House adviser for her father.
The disclosure for her husband, Jared Kushner, also an adviser to President Trump, shows that he took in hundreds of thousands of dollars from his holdings of New York City apartments and that he owns a stake in the real estate investment firm Cadre worth at least $25 million.
The disclosures released by the White House and filed with the U.S. Office of Government Ethics routinely show both assets and debts compiled in broad ranges between low and high estimates, making it difficult to precisely chart the rise and fall of the financial portfolios of federal government officials.
Ivanka Trump’s stake in the Trump International Hotel in Washington took in $3.95 million in 2018, an increase of $60,000 from a year earlier. The president reported in his own financial disclosure last month that he took in $41 million from the hotel last year, also largely unchanged.
The hotel has drawn criticism for hosting foreign diplomats and lobbyists looking to curry favor with the Trump administration. It is at the center of two federal lawsuits claiming Trump is violating the Constitution’s ban on foreign government payments to the president without congressional approval.
Kushner’s holdings of apartment buildings through his family real estate firm, Kushner Cos., was the source of much of his income. Westminster Management, the family business overseeing its rental buildings, generated $1.5 million. Separately, one of the family’s marquee holdings, the iconic Puck Building in the Soho section of Manhattan, generated as much as $6 million in rent.
Among other properties cited in the disclosure was a former warehouse-turned-luxury-condominium in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn that brought in more than $350,000 in sale proceeds and rent.
Former and current tenants in the building have filed a suit against the Kushner Cos. alleging it used noisy, dusty construction to make living conditions unbearable in an effort to push them out so their apartments could be sold. The Kushner Cos. has said the suit is without merit.
Cadre has also drawn conflict-of-interest questions. It launched a fund to take advantage of massive tax breaks by investing in downtrodden areas designated “Opportunity Zones,” a Trump administration program pushed by both Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner.
Also, this month the Guardian newspaper reported that Cadre received $90 million in foreign funding from an opaque offshore vehicle since Kushner entered the White House.
Kushner lawyer Abbe Lowell did not immediately respond to an email and phone message seeking comment.
Kushner appears to have cut his debt. He had loans and lines of credit worth at least $27 million at the end of last year, down from a minimum value of $40 million the previous year. His lenders include Bank of America, Citi Group and Deutsche Bank. Deutsche Bank is also a major lender to President Trump’s company and has been subpoenaed by congressional investigators looking into his finances.
Both Kushner and his wife took steps to distance themselves from their businesses before taking on their roles as unpaid White House advisers. Kushner stepped down as CEO of Kushner Cos. and sold stakes in many holdings, while Ivanka Trump similarly stepped away from executive roles at her companies.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
